President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. pledged on Tuesday to a senior official of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) that he will persuade several countries to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) to make the world safer from nuclear threat.

President Marcos made the commitment to Robert Floyd, CTBTO executive secretary, during the anti-nuclear official’s courtesy call in Malacañang.

“We’ll do our best. We are familiar with the process,” the President told Floyd.

Floyd sought the President’s assistance in convincing the leaders of Tonga, Bhutan, and Nepal to sign and ratify the CTBT, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on September 10, 1996.

The CTBT prohibits “any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion” anywhere in the world, and imposes sanctions on erring countries.

Since 1996, the treaty has been signed by 187 nations and ratified by 178.

Floyd said Tonga is the last South Pacific country to sign and ratify the treaty. He said that Nepal has not ratified the treaty yet because “they just haven’t managed to get the ratification process through the Parliament yet.”

Floyd continued: “One of the difficulties they keep changing their leaders is it’s hard to get the process completed.”

The treaty cannot formally enter into force until it is ratified by 44 specific nations, nine of which still need to do so. The countries are China, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States.

The Philippines recognizes the critical role of the CTBT as a key confidence-building mechanism to promote cooperation among states and to resolve regional and global security issues. | PND