UNITED NATIONS, Nov 12 (IPS) – The US took another step backward – breaking ranks with the United Nations – when it voted against a draft resolution calling for the entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
The negative vote followed an announcement by President Trump last month that the US plans to resume nuclear testing after a 33-year hiatus. The US stood alone on the UN vote, which was supported by almost all member states in the First Committee of the General Assembly.
The resolution was adopted by an overwhelming majority: with 168 votes in favor, one against (United States) and 3 abstentions (India, Mauritius, Syria).
During Trump’s first term, the US abstained. And in other years they would have voted in favor.
Jackie Cabasso, executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, which monitors and analyzes U.S. nuclear weapons programs and policies, said the chaos and uncertainty stemmed from Trump’s factually disputed social media post: “Because other countries have testing programs, I have directed the War Department to begin testing our nuclear weapons on an equivalent basis.”
The US government’s first-ever “No” vote against the annual UN resolution supporting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) raises even more troubling questions about US intentions.
Trump did not specify whether he meant explosive nuclear tests, missile tests or something else. Russia and China are not conducting explosive nuclear tests, so the US has no basis to respond in kind. They are conducting missile tests, but so is the United States, Cabasso noted.
In fact, she said, the US conducted a “routine” test of an unarmed intercontinental ballistic missile on November 5. The Ministry of Defense (now Ministry of War) is responsible for missile tests, but it is the Ministry of Energy that is responsible for preparing for explosive nuclear tests.
Trump’s announcement was followed by mixed signals.
On November 2, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright attempted to explain Trump’s post when he told Fox News, “I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call non-critical explosions.”
The headline in a New York Times article was spot on: Trump Pushes Tests With a Nuclear Bang: Top Aide Says Non-Nuclear.
The waters were further muddied, Cabasso said, by Trump’s baseless accusations in an interview with 60 Minutes (recorded on October 31 but broadcast on November 2) that Russia and China have secretly conducted explosive nuclear tests deep underground.
In a written statement explaining the General Assembly’s vote, the US – the only country to vote no – said: “The United States voted no… because several paragraphs are inconsistent with US policy or are undergoing policy review… The United States is not currently pursuing ratification of the CTBT and therefore cannot support calls for its ratification and entry into force.”
Of the other nuclear weapons states, the Russian Federation, China, France, Great Britain, Israel and Pakistan voted ‘yes’. India abstained and North Korea did not vote. The United States thus distinguished itself as a ‘rogue’ nuclear-armed state.
Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute, told IPS: “Calling the statement stupider and dumber does not support the argument that such a resumption of nuclear weapons testing would violate the commitments made to extend the NPT indefinitely, would justify further, more advanced weapons developments that conflict with good faith obligations to pursue disarmament under the NPT, would end the American advantage of knowing more because it is more has tested, would increase the salience of the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons as legitimate means of communication between countries, would lead to increased spending on the development of weapons that, if used, destroy both the user and adversaries, and that stimulate greater international fear and instability.
“We must crucially develop trust and cooperation to, among other things, protect the oceans and the climate, end the scourge of corruption that is stealing between $2 and $4 trillion from the world’s productive economies, stop the creation and production of new and even more dangerous weapons as we multiply the setbacks, ignore preparation for the inevitable next pandemic, eradicate poverty and generally pursue the common sense of human security rather than eternal instability and the dangerous belief that we are being led by madness, mistakes of machines or people or design will not allow us to destroy civilization through the use of these heinous devices,” he said.
Elaborating further, Cabasso pointed out that under the 1980 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a state is obliged to refrain from acts that would defeat the object and purpose of a treaty, once it has signed the treaty.
The United States, Russia and China have all signed, but not ratified, the CTBT. Russia withdrew its ratification in 2023 to maintain parity with the US. The three countries’ moratoriums on testing nuclear explosions have so far been in line with the intent of the CTBT, but Trump’s statements and the US vote in the General Assembly call this commitment into question.
Signaling how dangerous and uncertain this situation is, Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded by ordering officials to draw up proposals for a possible test of nuclear weapons.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted in TASS as saying: “To reach a conclusion on the advisability of starting preparations for such tests, it will take exactly the same amount of time as it takes to fully understand the intentions of the United States of America.”
“As we continue to advocate for the reduction of nuclear risks and the global elimination of nuclear weapons,” Cabasso said, “we must remain vigilant that the option of testing explosive nuclear weapons remains off the table.”
The United States must change course, commit to a permanent end to the testing of explosive nuclear weapons, ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and invite other nuclear-weapon states to follow suit. This would make an enormous contribution to the long-term prospects for international peace and security, she stated.
According to the Washington-based Arms Control Association (ACA), if the United States resumes nuclear testing, other countries such as Russia, North Korea and perhaps China will likely follow suit, escalating the nuclear arms race and increasing global tensions.
In response to Trump’s rhetoric, Representative said. Dina Titus (Democrat-Nevada.) has the Renewed Efforts to Suspend Testing and Strengthen Gun Control Initiatives Now (RESTRAIN) Act (HR 5894), which “creates a ban on explosive nuclear testing while preventing any funding from going to the Trump Administration’s efforts to conduct explosive nuclear testing.”
And Senator Ed Markey (Democrat-Massachusetts) has introduced companion legislation in the Senate as the No nuclear testing law (S. 3090) to block renewed testing and has called on the Senate to approve ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
In its appeal, ACA says: “We encourage you to contact your member of Congress this week and tell them to block the resumption of nuclear explosion testing, including by co-sponsoring the ‘RESTRAIN Act’ and ‘No Nuclear Testing Act.’
ACA has been at the forefront of efforts to stop nuclear weapons testing for decades.
“Since Trump’s call for renewed nuclear testing, we have taken action to get our message out, to rally opposition in Congress, to organize with other civil society organizations, and to mobilize international opposition to the resumption of nuclear testing by any country.”
IPS UN office report
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