Financiarul

Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Cristian Diaconescu is going to head the Romanian delegation to the Conference to promote the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), to take place in New York on Thursday and Friday, reads a release of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE).

The head of the Romanian diplomacy is going to refer at the Conference to certain concrete aspects related to the cooperation between Romania and the Provisional Technical Secretariat of the CTBTO to promote the entry into force of the provisions of the Treaty. The year 2009 has a special connotation for Romania too, taking into account that the country will celebrate the 10th anniversary on October 5 since the ratification of the Treaty.

There have signed the Treaty so far 181 states, while 149 already ratified it too, with 44 remaining. Only 9 among these 44 remaining states didn’t either sign or ratify the Treaty so far: China, Egypt, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Israel, Iran, Pakistan and the U.S.

According to the provisions of the Treaty, there already took place five such Conference to promote the entry into force of the Treaty, in Vienna, in 1999, 2003 and 2007 and in New York, in 2001 and 2005.

According to MAE, the Conference this year will be carried out on the background of advantageous conditions, with Obama Administration’s position towards the nuclear and general disarmament having already showed concrete results: the successful conclusion of the third session (in May 2009) of the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Review Conference and of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty Review;

the adoption of the working schedule of the Conference on disarmament: the new American-Russian agreement to cut nuclear arsenals, to replace the START: the recent announcement regarding the actualization of the anti-rocket defence concept.

Participating in the Conference there will be Ministers of Foreign Affairs from several states that signed the Treaty, among which France, Austria, Finland, Belgium, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, the Netherlands.

The U.S. Administration’s commitment related to the ratification of the Treaty was also confirms by the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton participating in the opening of the Conference, together with the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt, with Sweden currently holding the Presidency of the European Union.