US President Barack Obama has called for a concerted global effort to bolster the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. In a statement read out by US Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller at the UN Preparatory Session for the 2010 NPT Review conference, Obama noted that a strengthened NPT can “deal effectively with the threat of nuclear weapons and nuclear terrorism." He added that action was needed “to improve verification and compliance with the NPT and to foster the responsible and widest possible use of nuclear energy by all states." Mr. Obama also called for strategies for establishing "effective consequences" for treaty violators1.

Gottemoeller also told the meeting that the Obama administration "will immediately and aggressively pursue US ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty" and that plans were also in the works to "launch a diplomatic effort to bring on board the other states whose ratifications are required for the treaty to enter into force."

However, reports indicated that about half of the members of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States disagreed with the ratification of the treaty. This was indicated by William Perry, chairman of the panel, at a press conference on May 6. Perry was the US defense secretary when President Clinton signed the test ban treaty in September 1996. However, the Senate in 1999 voted against ratification of the treaty, with a number of lawmakers expressing concerns that the pact could not be adequately verified2.

• 1. “Stronger Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Needed, Obama Says,” Global Security Newswire, May 6, 2009, at http://gsn.nti.org/siteservices/print_friendly.php?ID=nw_20090506_1113
• 2. Elaine M. Grossman, “Strategic Posture Panel Reveals Split Over Nuclear Test Pact Ratification,” Global Security Newswire, May 7, 2009, at http://gsn.nti.org/gsn/nw_20090507_3983.php