The CTBT names the 44 states known or believed to have nuclear reactors capable of making material needed for a nuclear bomb. Among other significant nuclear states yet to ratify are Israel, Pakistan and India. 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 publicly 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 wrangling. 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 the US that its missile defence projects, which could only go ahead under a modification of the key 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, could spark an entirely new and far more dangerous arms race.