The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) on Saturday declared Latin America host for its 2025 global workshop on the nuclear-test ban.

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral agreement which opened for signature in September 1996 and has since been signed by 187 nations and ratified by 178 to prohibit any nuclear weapon test anywhere in the world by anyone.

The executive secretary of CTBTO, Robert Floyd, disclosed this at the closing of the two-day regional workshop organised by CTBTO for African States Signatories on Saturday in Banjul, The Gambia.

The workshop was held from May 31 to June 1.

Mr Floyd said, “The workshop was experimental: it is the first time we have conducted workshop on nuclear-test ban outside of Vienna and The Gambia in Africa is the first ever host. The workshop has been a success. It is not a global community that gathered, but a continent that gathered. It is wonderful that we can have focus on Africa.

“The next experiment is likely to be in the Latin America, in the Caribbean. We will learn from this to sustain the feats. We started with pictures about the treaty and we have come so far to discover the treaty has so much to deliver, to every member state signatory to it.

“There is benefit for all member states signatory to the treaty through capacity building, especially seeing people thread on the path of dialogue against nuclear weapon testing.”

He identified benefits of the treaty to include ensuring safety and protection of the environment from nuclear weapons, disaster management and other scientific purposes.

“We must establish a world without nuclear-test, put barriers against further development and proliferation of nuclear weapons. It is an essential step towards shared future of eradicating nuclear weapons in our environment,” Mr Floyd added.

Out of 52 African nations that signed the treaty, 50 have ratified it.

(NAN)