Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Meets with Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Tibor Toth

PRESS RELEASE

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov received on September 29 the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO PrepCom), Tibor Toth, who is in Russia on a working visit.

They discussed a wide range of issues relating to the Treaty and the necessity of securing its early entry into force.

Toth commended the Russian Federation's consistent line in support of the Treaty and to give it a universal character, as well as the level of cooperation between the Russian Federation and the CTBTO PrepCom.

For his part, Lavrov emphasized that Russia regards the CTBT as one of the major international legal instruments designed to put a reliable barrier against the qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons and their spread in the world. He also reiterated Russia's principled stand in favor of the Treaty, which it is necessary by joint efforts to make an active element of the global nonproliferation and disarmament architecture. A broad international consensus has long ago formed around this and the countries that still remain outside the CTBT can no longer ignore the circumstance.

September 29, 2011