8 April 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Tuesday unanimously ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1996.
Parties to this treaty undertake "not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion, and to prohibit and prevent any such nuclear explosion at any place under its jurisdiction or control.", and pledge "to refrain from causing, encouraging, or in any way participating in the carrying out of any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion.".
178 countries have signed the test ban treaty, and Mozambique becomes the 145th state to ratify it. However, the treaty does not come into force until 44 named countries have ratified it, and to date only 35 have done so. The predictable stumbling block is that two nuclear powers, the United States and China, although they signed the treaty in 1996, have never ratified it, and seem unlikely to do so. (The three other nuclear weapons states on the UN Security Council - Russia, Britain and France - have ratified).
India and Pakistan, which have both carried out nuclear tests, have neither signed nor ratified the treaty, and the same is true of North Korea.
In the Assembly, nuclear weapons are an issue on which there is no dissent, and so, after a very brief debate, the ratification resolution, introduced by Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi, was passed unanimously and by acclamation.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
