Asia-Pacific News
Indonesia joins treaty banning all nuclear explosions
Feb 6, 2012, 17:30 GMT
New York (dpa ) - Indonesia handed over a signed and ratified document to the United Nations on Monday, binding it to implementing a treaty banning all nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, on the earth's surface, underground and underwater.
Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa deposited the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) document, ratified by his country's legislators, thus joining another 157 countries that had ratified the treaty.
A total of 182 countries signed the CTBT, but not all have ratified it - a step that legally binds a nation to the treaty.
Despite the large number of signatories, the CTBT has yet to be enforced because it demands that all countries with nuclear capabilities sign and ratify it first.
The countries with nuclear capability that have not yet done so are: the United States, China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan.
Natalegawa told reporters that his government ratified the treaty because there was currently an opportunity to advance nuclear disarmament.
'The ratification should encourage others to do likewise, in order to help the treaty to enter into force,' he said.
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