On Tuesday 22 May, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini revealed that the European Union was lobbying actively for the accession of third states to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.
"In the past month, we instructed the European Union’s delegations – our embassies around the globe – to meet with relevant government officials in their host countries and to invite them to consider acceding to the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty", the EEAS special envoy for non-proliferation and disarmament, Jacek Bylica, announced, reading a speech from Mogherini at a high level conference on this Treaty.
The results of this diplomatic outreach will help the EU identify countries where its support could be of help.
The EU is thus in contact with 44 so-called "Annex 2" countries, which have negotiated the Treaty and whose ratification is needed for the Treaty to enter into force. China, Egypt, the USA, Iran and Israel signed the Treaty but have not ratified it, while North Korea, India and Pakistan have not even signed it.
"Our impression is that a number of them (countries) acknowledge the value of the Treaty and its International Monitoring System for international peace and security", Mogherini stated.
"Progress is possible, even in these difficult times. The entry into force of the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty must be our goal here and now, not in some vague future", she warned.
Protecting the Iran deal to negotiate with North Korea
Mogherini once again underlined the importance of protecting the nuclear deal with Iran, which, she said, is "equally a means of strengthening the perspective of a denuclearised Korean peninsula". Compromising it would only complicate the negotiations with Pyongyang.
"The credibility of every non-proliferation process is at stake", Mogherini thus warned. And in her opinion, "North Korea’s accession to the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty could be a very encouraging step" for a negotiated solution towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)