Whatever the truth, the president was not willing to ignore the warning of his Joint Chiefs of Staff. Most other countries refused to give way to the proposed U.S. changes. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also lent his weight to completing a treaty, even though the Ottawa conference had supplanted the official UN conference. This time the opposition of the United States and a few other countries was not enough to stem the momentum. With the U.S. delegate looking somberly on, delegates from more than 120 countries gathered in Ottawa in December 1997 agreed to submit a treaty to the countries of the world for signature and ratification.
Countries have the right to withdraw from the treaty with six months' warning.
The treaty will become effective six months after the fortieth country has ratified it. China, Russia, and a few other countries, in addition to the United States, declared that they would not sign the treaty, but that did not dampen the enthusiasm in Ottawa. It's a new definition of superpower. It's not one of us, it's everyone. The future of the treaty seems assured.