REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LONDON -- Indonesia stresses the importance of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) ratification and its immediate implementation, an Indonesian diplomat has said.

"Indonesian Ambassador Rachmat Budiman to Austria and Slovenia in his capacity as a co-president of the Artical XIV Process made the remarks in connection with the CTBT Conference to be held in New York next September," Social and Cultural Counselor/Information Affairs officer of the Indonesian Embassy in Vienna, Dody Kusumonegoro said on Tuesday, February 24.

He said that the ambassador has been chairing a series of consultation meetings regarding the conference on the universality and the implementation of the CTBT in New York. The embassy spokesman said that the conference is held once in two years to encourage countries to ratify the treaty, particularly countries which are contained in Appendix 2 of the treaty.

Now, eight countries in the Appendix 2 have yet to ratify the treaty, namely the United States, China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, Israel and North Korea.

Indonesia and Hungary have been co-presidents of Article XIV Process since 2013. Their chairmanship will end in September 2015. The co-chairmanship will be transferred to Japan and Kazakhstan which will co-chair Article XIV Process until 2017.

According to Dody, Ambassador Rachmat Budiman has stressed that for Indonesia the implementation of the treaty is a principle matter because the treaty has an important role in creating world peace. Therefore, Indonesia continues to encourage countries to take concrete actions in ratifying the treaty, even if Indonesia is no longer a co-chairman of Article XIV Process after September 2015.

Besides on the eight countries contained in the appendix, Indonesia also called on other countries such as Myanmar and Thailand to ratify the treaty.

Indonesia has made the appeal on various occasions, including when it hosted a regional conference on CTBT in Jakarta on May 2015.

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