Vienna, Aug 20 As the Indo-US nuclear deal goes through the motions, India was today asked to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty(CTBT) by the UN organisation overseeing this non-proliferation measure. While announcing that Iraq had signed the CTBT in New York yesterday, the Executive secretary of the CTBT preparator commission Tibor Toth said India, North Korea and Pakistan must also become signatories to the treaty. The three countries in the Asian region are also important for enforcing CTBT and therefore "we urge them to sign the treaty," Toth told reporters here today. The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) will consider granting waiver to India tomrrow to enable India resume global nuclear commerce and take the nuclear deal with the US forward. India has ruled out signing CTBT under any circumstances rejecting constant appeals and has not succumbed to any pressure. Japan had early this month urged India to sign the CTBT and the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty(NPT) New Delhi has maintained that it is not a signatory to NPT or CTBT as it has fulfilled all major conditionalities required for non-proliferation and has an impeccable record in this record. Pakistan has said it will not sign the CTBT unless India does so. Toth said Iraq's action was an important step in the area of prohibition of weapons of mass destruction taking into account the crisis over this issue in the past 15 years. With Iraq coming on board, 179 countries have signed the CTBT. Toth also urged those signatory countries who have not ratified the treaty yet to do so to enable its enforcement. Source : PTI
