MEXICO WELCOMES BRUNEI DARUSSALAM’S RATIFICATION OF THE COMPREHENSIVE NUCLEAR-TEST-BAN TREATY

• Brunei signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty on January 22, 1997 and ratified it on January 14, 2013.

• Mexico has promoted the nuclear test ban and, with Sweden, has co-chaired the conference for the entry into force of the agreement, which represents a major step toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

The Mexican government welcomes Brunei’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on January 14th. The ratification is an important step in universal acceptance of this treaty.

Each ratification brings the global community closer to ensuring that the treaty acquires full legal force and to making it more difficult to modernize the existing nuclear arsenals and to develop new weapons, thereby reinforcing international security.

This ratification is also important given that 8 of the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Ansean) –Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam—are already States Parties to the treaty (Myanmar and Thailand are still missing).

The CTBT bans tests of nuclear bombs, a necessary step towards nuclear disarmament. While 158 countries have acceded to the treaty, it has not entered into force as it requires ratification by all countries that possessed nuclear capability when it was negotiated and, of these countries, China, Democratic Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States have yet to either sign and/or ratify it.

Mexico urges all States that have not yet signed the Treaty to sign and ratify it as soon as possible, and to abstain from conducting nuclear tests and from all acts that defeat the object and purpose of the Treaty.

Mexico has promoted the nuclear test ban and the CTBT since it was negotiated. Each year, together with Australia and New Zealand, it presents a resolution to the UN General Assembly on making the treaty universal in scope. Currently, Mexico and Sweden co-chair the conference for the treaty’s entry into force.