REGIONAL SEMINAR STARTS TO PROMOTE CNTBT

Ulaanbaatar, /MONTSAME/ Regional seminar on promoting a validation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CNTBT) kicked off Monday in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
It has been co-organized by this Ministry and the Organization of CNTBT with a participation of some 50 representatives of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, France, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Sri-Lanka, Sweden and Tajikistan.
The regional seminar is aiming to propagandize the importance of CNTBT, enhance national capabilities of realizing the CNTBT, strengthen the regional security and confidence, activate the cooperation of the CNTBT members and to exchange experiences. The seminar will last until Tuesday.
A director of the Research Center of Astronomy and Geo-physics at the Academy of Sciences (AS) U.Sukhbaatar said this seminar will not make a certain decision because this is a simple working meeting not political one.
According to a historical fact, the first President of Mongolia P.Ochirbat announced the nuclear weapon-free status of Mongolia in 1992. The announcement was appreciated by many countries, and Mongolia became a nuclear weapon-free zone. By the way, there are some 40 countries who have nuclear power plants, and 8-9 countries perform one nuclear test at least.
In 1994, a nuclear exploiding control and banning started. From this year, controlling stations have been installed in Mongolia. In accordance with a cooperation contract in the geo-physical sphere established in 1995 between Mongolia and France, our country received some devices to record earthquakes (PS-25) and explosions of nuclear tests. It significantly contributed to Mongolia's penetrating into the international network of controlling nuclear weapons. Besides, technical supply was improved for Mongolia.
Mongolia is a special country that is sandwiched between two superpowers who possess nuclear weapons. In 1994, Mongolia created a composition of related staffers. Thus, a scientific group of nuclear experts at the UN Disarmament Conference has decided to make Mongolia a key point of monitoring nuclear exploiding.
According to an advisor to the director of the Commission for Atomic Energy of France, the Republic of France has become the first country to sign the CNTBT among the nuclear weapon states and officially banned atomic weapons test. As of today, 44 countries have joined the CNTBT.