Entry into force of Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
important and urgent, says
second session of
NPT Preparatory Committee

The second session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference of Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has ended in Geneva. The Preparatory Committee, under the Chairmanship of Laszlo Molnar, Ambassador of Hungary, met from 25 April to 9 May to prepare for the NPT?s next Review Conference in 2005. The NPT is widely regarded as fundamental to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament activities. Representatives from 106 States parties attended the meeting, and open sessions were also attended by representatives from five international and regional intergovernmental organizations: the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL), the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the European Commission, the League of Arab States and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The NGO community was also present. In his factual summary of the second session of the NPT Preparatory Committee, Ambassador Laszlo Molnar devoted a paragraph to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, noting strong expressions of support for the CTBT and underlining the importance of its entry into force. NPT States Parties reaffirmed the importance of maintaining a moratorium on nuclear-weapon test explosions, and noted the progress made in establishing the International Monitoring System. The relevant paragraph of the factual summary is reproduced below. Factual summary of the Chairperson of the second session of the Preparatory Committee of the 2005 NPT Review Conference, paragraph 14: "14. Strong support was expressed for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, as reflected in the Final Declaration adopted at the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the CTBT in November 2001, and in the Joint Ministerial Statement on the CTBT, launched by the CTBT Foreign Ministers? Meeting organized by Australia, Japan and the Netherlands in September 2002. The importance and urgency of the early entry into force of the Treaty was underscored. States which had not ratified the Treaty, especially those remaining 13 States whose ratification was necessary, and in particular those two remaining nuclear-weapon States whose ratification was a prerequisite for its entry-into-force, were urged to do so without delay. Strong hope was expressed that more countries will sign and ratify the Treaty between now and the 2003 Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force to be held on 3-5 September in Vienna. States parties reaffirmed the importance of maintaining a moratorium on nuclear-weapon-test explosions or any other nuclear explosions and noted the progress made by the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization in establishing the international monitoring system."

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