(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday welcomed the signing earlier today by all five nuclear-weapon States of the Protocol to the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia (CANWFZ), his press office said in a statement.
The Protocol commits the five nuclear-weapon States - US, Britain, France, Russia and China - to respect the application of the Treaty in Central Asia as well as not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against the parties to the Treaty.
The signing took place on the margins of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee 10-day meeting which ends Friday.
Ban also congratulated the five Central Asia States - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - on this "achievement" today of the "first concrete" step towards the consolidation of the zone, and expressed hope that the five nuclear-weapon States ratify the Protocol without delay.
He reiterated his strong support for the further establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones, including in the Middle East, which contribute to the strengthening of global norms against nuclear weapons to the benefit of non-proliferation, regional security and disarmament.
When the Treaty entered into force on 21 March 2009, it created the world's first nuclear-weapon-free zone located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere.
Under the Treaty, the five Central Asian zone states may not allow the stationing of nuclear weapons within their territories. They are now required to adopt the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Additional Protocol, which provides the IAEA with expanded access and authorities to ensure that all nuclear activities are used only for peaceful purposes.
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