SRINAGAR: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday called on all countries possessing nuclear weapons to maintain existing moratoriums on nuclear testing and move towards a legally binding global ban on nuclear explosions.
“Nuclear tests shatter trust, fuel a nuclear arms race and betray every community still living with the legacy of past nuclear tests,” Guterres said in a post on X.
He urged countries to bring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force and renew their commitment to ending nuclear testing.
Guterres’s appeal came after Russia announced a training launch of a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
Russia’s Defence Ministry said the mobile solid-fuel missile was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region of north-western Russia and struck its designated target at the Kura test range in Kamchatka in the Far East.
Moscow said the launch was conducted to verify the “tactical, technical, and flight characteristics of the missile system”.
The CTBT was adopted in 1996 with the aim of establishing a legally binding global prohibition on all nuclear test explosions. However, it has yet to enter into force because several key states have not ratified it.
The treaty requires ratification by all 44 countries listed in its Annex 2, which possessed nuclear technology or research reactors when negotiations concluded. Nine of those states — the United States, Russia, China, Iran, Israel, Egypt, India, Pakistan and North Korea — have yet to complete the ratification process.
As of 2026, 188 states have signed the treaty and 179 have ratified it.
