Executive Secretary meets Secretary of State John Kerry and other world leaders

The Executive Secretary thanked Kerry for the engagement of the United States at the highest levels and in this regard recalled his encouraging meetings during his visit to the United States, including with Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, National Nuclear Security Administration, Administrator Frank Klotz, Gottemoeller, as well as former Secretary of State George Shultz and former Secretaries of Defense William Perry and Leon Panetta.

Together with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and foreign ministers and senior officials from around 90 countries, Kerry and Zerbo participated in a Ministerial Meeting chaired by Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida. The biennial CTBT Ministerial Meetings are an initiative of the group of “Friends of the CTBT”, whose members include Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands and Sweden.

In opening the meeting, Ban Ki-moon called upon the eight Annex 2 States to ratify the CTBT without further delay, underscoring his strong personal commitment to the Treaty and referring to the fact that he previously served as Chairman to the CTBTO’s executive body and during his term as Secretary-General had not missed a single CTBT Ministerial Meeting.

Addressing a CTBT Ministerial Meeting for the first time, Kerry stated “I come here to reiterate the Obama's Administration’s unshakable commitment to see this Treaty ratified and enter into force,” But he said there was “no reason for the other Annex 2 States to wait for the United States to complete the ratification process.”

Zerbo assured Member States that their investments in the CTBT’s verification regime were well placed, and the CTBTO stood ready to prove “that the International Monitoring System works as the deterrent against nuclear testing that it was designed for.”

While  at the General Assembly, the Executive Secretary held consultations and met with several heads of State and foreign ministers on matters ranging from universalization and entry into force of the Treaty, to the build-up of the IMS and payment of assessed contributions. The heads of State included President Serzh Sargsian (Armenia), Interim President Catherine Samba-Panza (Central African Republic), President Idriss Déby (Chad), President Michelle Bachelet (Chile), President Denis Sassou-Nguesso (Republic of Congo), President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba (Gabon), President Alpha Condé (Guinea), President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (Mauritania) and. President Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan).

The Executive Secretary also met several foreign ministers including Georges Rebelo Chicoti (Angola), Sebastian Kurz (Austria), Djibrill Bassolé (Burkina Faso), Heraldo Muñoz (Chile), Laurent Fabius (France), Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Germany), Mohammad Javad Zarif (Islamic Republic of Iran), Fumio Kishida (Japan), and Luvsanvandan Bold (Mongolia). He also met with Cardinal State Secretary Pietro Parolin from the Holy See and Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, who is the designated European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and a member of the Group of Eminent Persons.

Mogherini, who also addressed the CTBT Ministerial Meeting, thanked Zerbo for the "excellent work he and the organization is doing" and expressed the EU’s strong desire to make progress with the CTBT’s entry into force. Mogherini also underlined the EU’s continued financial support for the CTBTO, including through significant voluntary contributions.

The ministers urged “all States that have not done so to sign and ratify the Treaty, in particular the remaining eight Annex 2 States.” The statement further acknowledged the role of the Group of Eminent Persons in assisting in the entry-into-force process and highlighted the importance of the upcoming on-site inspection simulation, the Integrated Field Exercise 2014 (IFE14), in Jordan.