5 Powers Promise to Stop Nuclear Testing; India, Pakistan Reject Treaty

President Clinton and top officials of the other four principal nuclear powers today signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which prohibits test explosions of nuclear weapons.

Wielding a pen that John F. Kennedy used in 1963 to sign an earlier ban on atmospheric bomb tests -- as opposed to the ones underground and elsewhere barred by the new pact -- Clinton signed what he called "the longest sought, hardest fought prize in arms control history."

The treaty, which had eluded negotiators for four decades, points the world "toward a century in which the roles and risks of nuclear weapons can be further reduced, and ultimately eliminated," Clinton said.

Despite this grandiose rhetoric, the document Clinton signed here is for now a public statement of political commitment rather than a binding instrument under international law.

India, one of 44 actual or potential nuclear powers that have the power to block the treaty from taking effect, has said it won't sign because the world's nuclear arsenals remain unequal in size. And Pakistan, another of those 44 states, said it won't sign unless India does.

In addition, the signatory states must go through the usual ratification procedures. That includes required passage by a two-thirds majority of the U.S. Senate, where some Republicans have reservations about the pact in its current form.

Even with these obstacles, however, arms control experts described today's signing ceremony as more than a mere symbolic achievement. The five declared nuclear powers -- the United States, China, France, Russia and Britain -- were the first in a parade of more than 50 countries to sign the treaty today, and as a practical matter they are expected to abide by its terms.

Anticipating the moratorium on testing, China exploded a nuclear bomb underground as recently as July, and France conducted a test in January. The United States, Russia and Britain voluntarily had stopped testing previously.

Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov warned potential nuclear powers that any testing before the treaty entered into force would greatly prejudice the pact "and may compel many countries to revise their attitude to it," Reuter reported.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen said that in light of the huge stockpiles of other nuclear powers, Beijing needed to make sure its weapons were safe and reliable. In giving that traditional reasoning for nuclear testing, however, the Chinese minister did not say that his country would conduct another underground explosion.

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was a goal originally set by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and after it eluded him, by President Kennedy, who settled instead for a ban on above-ground testing.

Sporadic efforts to revive the treaty over the years failed, and the Clinton administration renewed the push for a total test ban in 1993 before the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament. Efforts in that body ran aground because of India's opposition, prompting a coalition of nations led by Australia to circumvent India and bring the issue to the General Assembly, where it passed on a vote of 158 to 3 earlier this month, with five abstentions.

Clinton's 20-minute address to the General Assembly this morning came at an awkward moment. Many nations are angry that the United States owes a large debt for unpaid past dues to the world body, and many developing nations in particular are upset with the Clinton administration's unilateral decision to oust Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali after a single term.

Clinton paid what the White House described as a brief "courtesy call" on Boutros-Ghali prior to his speech. But the president said later that his forced-retirement plan for the secretary general did not come up.

"There was nothing to discuss," Clinton told reporters. "Our position is clear and is set, and there was nothing to talk about."

The administration says that Boutros-Ghali is insufficiently committed to reforming what senior officials believe is a bloated U.N. bureaucracy.

While the U.S. debt to the United Nations has been a major source of tension with other members, Clinton and his aides today seemed determined not to be put on the defensive over the issue. With a bill of more than $1.5 billion to be paid, the United States is the United Nations' largest debtor, but Clinton accented the positive by noting in his speech that, "For the 51st year in a row, the United States will be the largest financial contributor to the U.N."

The U.S. contribution to the United Nations last year was about $1.83 billion, according to the White House. "I am committed to paying off our accumulated obligations," Clinton said.

But while he was defending his own record, he also tried to defend the United Nations from domestic critics. Republicans, including presidential nominee Robert J. Dole, have said Clinton's support for the United Nations has sacrificed U.S. sovereignty and its reputation for leadership abroad.

"Unfortunately, some Americans, in their longing to be free of the world's problems and perhaps to focus more on our own problems, ignore what the United Nations has done, ignore the benefits of cooperation, ignore our own interdependence with all of you in charting a better future," Clinton told the international delegations, adding that the "vast majority of Americans support the United Nations."

Other points in Clinton's speech were clearly aimed in part for domestic consumption in his race with Dole, who has accused the administration of lacking zeal in the fight against drugs. Clinton said that next week he will "target more than $100 million worth of defense equipment, services and training," to various Latin American nations, including Mexico and Colombia, to help them fight drug trafficking.