Next year will mark 20 years since the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty, which would ban any nuclear explosions conducted on and above Earth — in the atmosphere, underground, in outer space and underwater — was opened for signatures. However, the treaty has not yet entered into force because eight key countries have failed to ratify it.
The Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the CTBT took place last week on the sidelines of the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly, with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his counterpart from Kazakhstan, Erlan Idrissov, serving as co-chairs.
All of the countries concerned should take meaningful actions by paying attention to what the conference's final declaration said: "We affirm that a universal and effectively verifiable Treaty constitutes a fundamental instrument in the field of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation."