Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Conference Postponed

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On September 20, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan postponed a conference on facilitating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty's (CTBT) entry into force after a majority of states that have ratified the agreement requested the delay. The CTBT bans all nuclear test explosions.

The conference was supposed to be held September 25-27 at UN headquarters in New York and was timed to coincide with the start of the UN General Assembly's general debate. However, the debate was put off for security reasons after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, leading to the postponement of the CTBT conference. Forty-one foreign ministers were scheduled to attend the conference. …