These 44 nations are those known to be holding or thought capable of developing nuclear weapons. Among other named states yet to ratify but known to hold nuclear weapons are Israel, Pakistan and India, though Israel did sign the treaty in 1996. While almost every nation subscribes to the test ban treaty's noble aims, the realities of international power politics are playing their part with many nations seemingly waiting to see what the US does. He says that the US now has the technology to safely stockpile weapons, carry out computer simulated tests and monitor other states, leaving it with no excuse not to sign. Congress rejected the legislation on 13 October 1999, after Republicans argued that the CTBT would fail to properly monitor other nations.
Many nations say a test ban without disarmament is no longer good enough.
India has publically argued that the CTBT merely formalises nuclear discrimination, allowing the big five to maintain modern weapons but preventing others from developing an adequate nuclear deterrent. Large scale disarmament talks are currently failing to bear fruit. Talks at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva have been frequently criticised as flawed and bogged down in procedural wranglings. The Canberra Commission of 1997, a side report linked to the Conference on Disarmament, argued that if states carried out a number of measures including taking weapons off alert and mothballing some technologies, countries would feel able to negotiate. Moscow has also warned that US that its missile defence projects, which could only go ahead under a modification of the key 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile missile treaty, could spark an entirely new and far more dangerous arms race.