Abstract
The arms control world has focused on finally achieving the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban (CTB) Treaty, a task that was accomplished in September with great agony. Completion of the treaty was welcome news. But it is a flawed instrument in that India a {open_quotes}threshold{close_quotes} nuclear weapon state, has said that it will never sign it. Ultimately that could be fatal to the treaty because India is one of the 44 states that must ratify it before it can enter into force. However, It is possible that India might sign and ratify the CTB within a few years, if the nuclear weapon states get serious about the nuclear disarmament commitment they made more than 25 years ago in Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and if the CTB is amended to meet India`s objections. Despite uncertainties regarding the long-range fate of the treaty, the CTB has immediate value. The Vienna Law of Treaties provides that signatories to a treaty must {open_quotes}refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purposes{close_quotes} of the treaty, pending its entry into force. In short, no nuclear tests.
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