After a rocky summer, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) which bans all nuclear tests, was finally approved by the UN General Assembly on 10 September 1996. Earlier, India's 11th-hour decision to oppose the CTBT by all available means successfully prevented its approval of the CTBT at the 61-nation Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The ground rules for the Conference required unanimous support for treaty approval, so India's opposition led to the abandonment of treaty negotiations on 22 August. The other states however cast about to find an alternate avenue of treaty approval, and Australia offered to submit the treaty directly to the UN General Assembly for approval. On 9 September Australia submitted the following resolution to the UN General Assembly: "THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, "RECALLING its resolution 50/65 of 12 December 1995, in which the Assembly declared its readiness to resume consideration of the item "Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty," as necessary, before its 51st session in order to endorse the text of a Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, "1. ADOPTS the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, as contained in . . . (document number allocated to treaty text to be filled in); "2. REQUESTS the Secretary-General, as depositary of the treaty, to open it for signature, at United Nations headquarters, at the earliest possible date; "3. CALLS UPON all states to sign and, thereafter, according to their respective constitutional processes, to become parties to the treaty at the earliest possible date; "4. REQUESTS the Secretary-General, as depositary of the treaty, to report to the General Assembly at its 52nd session on the status of signature and ratifications of the treaty." The resolution and treaty were approved by the General Assembly on 10 September. The CTBT will not enter into force, though, until all 44 countries with nuclear reactors have signed and ratified it. It was opened for signature Tuesday, 24 September when President Clinton followed by the foreign ministers of the four other declared nuclear powers -- Russia, China, Britain and France -- all signed. More than 40 countries signed the first day it was open for signature, and in the first 11 days a total of 111 were collected. This included 38 of the required 44 states had signed the treaty at U.N. headquarters. The six remaining states were Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, North Korea, and Pakistan. India has stated definitely that it will not sign the pact, and Pakistan has stated that it would not agree to the pact until India does so. Besides the five declared nuclear powers, the key signatories included: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zaire. The treaty requires a conference in three to four years for members to decide how to accelerate the ratification process should India and others still refuse to join the pact. Clinton is expected to ask the U.S. Senate to ratify the treaty early in 1997, according to U.S. officials. But the United States will not deposit the ratification papers until all the nuclear powers as well as those suspected of having or close to having a bomb -- India, Pakistan and Israel -- are ready to do so. 15 November 1996 - Carey Sublette