Australia calls for adherence to CTBT

CANBERRA, Australia, May 16 (UPI) -- Australia is calling on the international community to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty into force to promote disarmament and non-proliferation.

Stephen Smith, Australian minister for foreign affairs, and Tibor Toth, executive secretary of the preparatory commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, recently held a meeting to address concerns over the CTBT. After the meeting Smith renewed a call for universal adherence to the CTBT, the CTBTO reported.

"(The CTBT) entry into force is an immediate disarmament and non-proliferation priority," Smith said in a statement. "The CTBT offers a vital framework for disarmament and non-proliferation objectives, but a decade after its negotiation it is not yet in force."

Smith called on China, North Korea, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States to ratify the CTBT. Officials say without nine so-called annex countries the treaty cannot be ratified into force.