NUR-SULTAN. Aug 30 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty Organization (CTBTO) are calling on all states and society to put an end to nuclear tests by facilitating the enactment of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), Kazakh Foreign Minister Beibut Atamkulov and CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo said in a joint statement adopted at their meeting in Nur-Sultan on Thursday.
"... We reaffirm our commitment to realizing a world free of nuclear testing and renew our resolve to achieve the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)," Atamkulov and Zerbo said in their statement, was circulated by the Kazakh Foreign Ministry.
"We urge those States that have not yet signed or ratified the Treaty to do so without delay. We especially call on the remaining eight CTBT Annex 2 States, whose ratifications are required for the Treaty's entry into force, to demonstrate leadership by taking this important step," they said.
"It is high time to bring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty into force. Let us take the last steps of this long journey and finish one of the longest sought international instruments in the area of non-proliferation and disarmament. We owe it to ourselves, and to future generations," they said.
The sides also invited all states to attend the International Day against Nuclear Tests commemoration at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on September 9, 2019.
Kazakhstan closed the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site on August 29, 1991, a landmark event for the country itself and the entire international community, sending a political message and facilitating international efforts that led to the adoption of the CTBT in 1996.