Christina
Persico RNZ Pacific Senior bulletin editor
Tonga
has become the 179th state to ratify the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
The ratification was
formalised on Tuesday at a ceremony at the United Nations
headquarters in New York.
Tonga’s permanent
representative to the UN Viliami Va’inga Tōnē said this is
just a legal formality but a statement of who they are and
what they stand for.
“The Pacific has felt the pain of
nuclear testing. Ratifying the CTBT is our contribution to
ensuring that no one, anywhere, has to go through that
again,” he said.
The Preparatory Commission for the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO)
said the ratification reflects Crown Prince Tupoutoa
Ulukalala’s strong commitment to international peace and
security.
Robert Floyd, CTBTO executive secretary,
said Tonga’s ratification is “a meaningful contribution to
the global effort to ban nuclear test explosions for
good”.
Tonga is also a party to the Treaty of
Rarotonga, which established the South Pacific Nuclear-Free
Zone in 1985, and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons.
The CTBTO works to build up the
verification regime of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban
Treaty (CTBT) in preparation for the treaty’s entry into
force, as well as promoting the treaty.
The CTBTO said
with Tonga’s signature and ratification, the treaty now
counts 188 states signatories and 179 ratifying
states.
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This comes amid outcry
over China testing a nuclear-capable missile with a dummy
warhead in the Pacific.
Regional governments were
notified by China shortly before it launched the test, on
the same day that Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony
Albanese went to Fiji to sign new treaties related to
security and defence.
Australia and New Zealand
accused China of undermining the peace and stability of the
region, and of going against the values of Pacific Island
countries as enshrined in the Pacific Forum’s Ocean of Peace
initiative.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao
Ning said the launch was consistent
with international law and customary international
practice and was not directed at any specific country or
target.
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