GENEVA: An international conference that has been meeting intermittently for 18 months to complete a treaty banning all nuclear testing will end without an agreement, arms control officials from several countries said.
What is likely to happen next is that the current version of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty(CTBC), with key issues still unresolved, would go to the capitals of the nations involved for further consideration, officials said. An additional negotiating session may be convened next month.
Negotiators meeting in Geneva had been optimistic until last week that they could reach consensus on nuclear ban treaty, but those hopes faded when India announced last week that it would not sign the treaty in its present form.
India wanted the treaty to require the destruction of all existing nuclear weapons within a given time period. In addition, New Delhi objected to the requirement that the three countries assumed to have secret weapons programs India, Pakistan and Israel ~ sign and ratify the accord before it can go into force. Pakistan has also voiced objections to the accord in its draft form.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 3, 1996
