CTBTO Canvasses Collective Approach To Prevent Nuclear Testing

Tosin Kolade
Aug, Tue, 2025

Foreign

CTBTO canvasses collective approach to prevent nuclear testing

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By Fortune Abang

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) has underscored the need for collective approach to tackle nuclear testing and prevent future tests.

This is contained in a joint statement on Monday by Mr Philémon Yang, President, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and Dr Robert Floyd, Executive Secretary, CTBTO, during the UNGA’s seventy-ninth session.

The theme of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the United Nations and the first nuclear weapon test theme is: Trinity to Today: Turning the page on Nuclear Testing.”

They said that UNGA declared Aug. 29 as the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, to commemorate the closing of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in present-day Kazakhstan on the same date in 1991.

According to them, 456 nuclear test explosions occurred over four decades, saying in 1945, two historic developments reshaped the course of global diplomacy.

The UNGA and CTBTO chiefs said the first was the establishment of the United Nations in October, following the signing of its Charter in June.

“This day is a solemn reminder that nuclear testing must become a relic of the past and on this Day, we must summon the courage and conviction to bring the CTBT into force.

“The path ahead will not be easy. The current global climate is fraught with tension and uncertainty, but complacency is not an option.

“A return to nuclear testing would almost certainly spark a dangerous arms race, one that undermines the purposes for which the United Nations was founded,” they said.

They noted that the arms race would threaten every community, every nation, every ecosystem and indeed, the very planet we call home.

“Looking ahead, two milestones approach if no nuclear test is conducted by Jan. 14, 2026, the world will set a record for the longest period without nuclear test since 1945.

”In Sept. 24, 2026, we will mark the 30th anniversary of CTBT’s opening for signature,” the UN officials said.

They said that over the past eight decades the progress made proved that change was possible when the international community united around principled, transparent and honest policies on ending nuclear testing.

The stressed the need to also meet this moment with not just realism, but also with hope, adding that a safer world for everyone, everywhere was within reach if people chose it together.

“This act of collective hope laid the foundation for international cooperation and a more peaceful and secure world.

“The second was the first-ever nuclear test explosion, known as Trinity, conducted in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.

”It was soon followed by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which exposed the full harrowing consequences of nuclear warfare,” they said.

“Even as the world began to embrace a new international order, the threat of nuclear annihilation remained ever-present.

“From the outset, addressing this threat became a core responsibility of the United Nations and the broader international community.

“This concern was clearly reflected in the first action of the UNGA Resolution 1 (I), adopted on Jan. 24, 1946, called for the elimination of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction from national arsenals,” they added.

The officials also decried the alarming scale of nuclear weapons testing, saying that between 1945 and 1996 not less than 2,000 nuclear tests were conducted across the globe, averaging at least one test every nine days.

They noted that nuclear weapons when detonated on land, underground, in the air and underwater resulted in radioactive fallout, environmental harm and impacts on human health which persist across generations.

Such should not be allowed to continue, they added, adding that the opening for signature of CTBT) in 1996 marked the right step in the right direction.

They further said that about 187 nation-states had signed the Treaty and 178 had ratified it with nine states ratifying and one signing in the past three years. (NAN)

Edited by Mark Longyen

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