Global Security Newswire

Guatemala has ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, becoming the 156th nation to do so, the treaty's implementing organization announced on Friday (see GSN, Dec. 7, 2011).

Guatemalan Foreign Minister Haroldo Rodas Melgar submitted the treaty's ratification instrument in an event on Thursday at the U.N. main office in New York. The Latin American nation signed the pact in 1999.

“Guatemala’s ratification of the CTBT is an important building block towards a world free of nuclear weapons. It underlines Guatemala’s commitment to outlaw nuclear testing and to enhance non-proliferation and disarmament worldwide,” Tibor Tóth, head of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, said in released remarks.

“Guatemala’s ratification of the CTBT is a boost for the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which will soon celebrate 10 years of being the world’s first nuclear-weapon-free zone to include all countries in the region,” Tóth added. “This bodes well for the CTBT.”

Cuba and Dominica are the only nations in Latin America and the Caribbean that have not yet signed or ratified the pact, according to a CTBTO press release. The treaty has 182 signatories.

The ban cannot formally enter into force without the ratification of 44 specific nations. Eight holdouts remain: China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States (Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization release, Jan. 13).