Pakistan Ready to Work Out Bilateral Agreement on Nuclear Test Ban With India

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — Pakistan is ready to consider a bilateral agreement on imposing a moratorium on nuclear testing with India, the Pakistani prime minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said Friday.

"Pakistan has consistently supported the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). We voted in favor of the treaty when it was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1996. We have announced a unilateral moratorium on further nuclear testing. Pakistan is ready to consider the transformation of its unilateral moratorium into the bilateral agreement with India on banning [nuclear] testing," Aziz told journalists.

The CTBT is a multilateral treaty that envisages signatories agreeing to ban all nuclear explosions for military or civilian purposes. It was adopted at the 50th session of the UN General Assembly on September 10, 1996 and opened for signature on September 24 of the same year.

It has been signed by 183 countries. To enter into force, the CTBT requires ratification by all 44 states listed in the annex. Currently, the treaty is ratified by 36 countries, including the three nuclear weapons possessors — Russia, the United Kingdom and France. Five signatories have not ratified the treaty yet, namely China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States, while India, North Korea and Pakistan have not signed it yet.

India was the first nation in the world to call for a CTBT and has initially participated in negotiations for the treaty in Geneva, but has expressed discontent with the deal's final draft and announced its intention not to sign. Pakistan initially voted in favor of the CTBT in 1996, but subsequently refused to accede to the agreement unless India did the same.