WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, released the following statement Friday after the UN Security Council voted 14-0-1 in support of Resolution 2310, which reaffirms the global moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. The P5 Members of the Security Council also reiterated their support for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty:
“Today’s vote strongly reaffirms the international community’s commitment to halt all nuclear-weapons test explosions. Since 1992, the United States has self-imposed a moratorium on nuclear testing and this nonbinding UN resolution encourages other countries to follow our lead. The resolution also calls upon all Member States to support the completion of the International Monitoring System, a system that was established to detect and confirm nuclear explosions anywhere on the planet. This system once again demonstrated its value when it verified North Korea’s fifth nuclear test and I believe it is critical Congress continues to fund it as it has in Republican and Democratic administrations.
“As Secretary of State John Kerry indicated in his September 7th letter to Senator Corker and me, it is clear this resolution imposes no legally binding commitments on the United States nor does it undermine the treaty approval powers of the United States Senate. What is also clear is that a testing ban has slowed the proliferation of nuclear weapons, an important step on the path to achieving a world one day free of nuclear weapons.”
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