Page 111 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

negotiated treaty banning an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.
The substantive annual agenda for 1994 included the following items:

(1) Nuclear test bаn.
(2) Effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-
weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons.
(3) Prevention of an arms race in outer space.
(4) Transparency in armaments.

The negotiating body meets annually at Geneva for approximately six
months, usually when the General Assembly is not in session, and it works
under the rule of consensus. The Conference has played а useful role in
maintaining continuity in disarmament negotiations and keeping the dialogue
on security and disarmament in the foreground.

Nuclear Test Ban

Negotiations on а nuclear test ban started soon after the advent of nuclear
weapons. It is said that no disarmament item has been discussed continuously
for such а long period of time as а comprehensive test ban treaty (СТВТ). The
widely held view is that а СТВТ would strengthen the non­proliferation regime
bу placing а barrier on the spread of nuclear weapons, and that it would
constrain the improvement of nuclear weapons systems, thus furthering the
cause of nuclear disarmament.

The United States, USSR and the United Kingdom started formal negotia-
tions on а СТВT in 1958 in an effort to achieve а treaty on the cessation of
nuclear weapon tests, which aimed to prohibit all nuclear test explosions in all
environments for all time. Ву the end of 1958, all three parties had voluntarily
suspended their nuclear testing. In 1961, nuclear testing resumed (first, bу the
USSR and then by the United States). The negotiations between the USA,
USSR and UК within the framework of the Conference on the Discontinuance
of Nuclear Weapons Tests ceased in early 1962 and resumed in March 1962 in
the Eighteen-Nation Disarmament Committee (ENDC). The main obstacles
to а comprehensive test ban treaty were military and strategic considerations
and the problems of verifying compliance. Although the positions of the sides
in the negotiations were at times very close, in the early 1960s an impasse over
the number of on-site inspections occurred between the USSR (who wanted З)
and the USA (who wanted 7), and only partial agreements, therefore, were
reached: the multilateral Partial Test Ban Treaty (РТВТ) of 1963, which bans

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