Conventional Cooperation

UNITED NATIONS - A long-awaited international convention against nuclear terrorism will come into force next week, nine years after it was originally proposed by Russia and 10 months after it was adopted by the 192-member General Assembly. But most of the major powers, including those with nuclear weapons, are giving it a miss — at least so far.

The new international treaty, which has 115 signatories, needed 22 ratifications before it became international law. The 22nd country to ratify it was Bangladesh. The treaty comes into force July 7.

Dr. Natalie J. Goldring, a senior fellow with the Center for Peace and Security Studies and an adjunct full professor in the Security Studies Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, however, expresses doubts about the effective implementation of the convention. [...]

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and at least three other countries outside the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty have about 26,000 nuclear weapons among them, of which 12,000 are on alert status.

-Common Dreams