Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)

Getting to Zero timeline: 2011

September 20, 2011: Guinea ratifies the CTBT

July 28-29, 2011: First high-level meeting between the US and North Korea in two years takes place between U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth and North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan in New York. US displayed willingness to restart talks if North Korea demonstrates commitment to a constructive attitude during negotiations.

Almaty and Prague

This week, talks over Iran’s nuclear program will resume on Friday and Saturday, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Friday will also mark four years since President Barack Obama delivered his landmark speech in Prague, Czech Republic, where he called for a world free of nuclear weapons and outlined the details of how his first administration would handle nuclear weapons issues.

This Week: Obama’s inauguration, just in time for Israeli elections and the opening of the CD

This week marks the formal start of Barack Obama’s second term as President of the United States. On Monday, he will make his public inaugural address in Washington (having been sworn in formally on Sunday, January 20th). The current agenda in the United States is dominated by the fiscal cliff and domestic gun control issues so Obama may have little time initially to kick off on foreign policy issues for a while.

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)

The Obama Administration committed itself to submitting the CTBT to the Senate for ratification, but support there is uncertain (it requires the support of 67 Senators). This is crucial to several other key states' ratification, and necessary for the Treaty to come into force.

Treaty text (has not entered into force), Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization