President Marcos has assured a senior official of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) that he will persuade several countries to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) to make the world safer from nuclear threats.

Marcos said this as he met CTBTO Executive Secretary Robert Floyd in Malacañan on Tuesday, March 18.

During the meeting, Floyd reportedly asked Marcos' assistance in persuading the leaders of Tonga, Bhutan, and Nepal to ratify the CTBT, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Sept. 10, 1996.

"We’ll do our best. We are familiar with the process," the President told Floyd.

The CTBT prohibits "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion" anywhere in the world, and imposes sanctions on erring countries.

Since 1996, the treaty has been signed by 187 nations and ratified by 178.

Floyd said Tonga is the last South Pacific country to sign and ratify the treaty. He said that Nepal has not ratified the treaty yet because "they just haven’t managed to get the ratification process through the Parliament yet."

"One of the difficulties they keep changing their leaders is it’s hard to get the process completed," Floyd said.

The treaty cannot formally enter into force until it is ratified by 44 specific nations, nine of which still need to do so—China, North Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, and the United States.

According to Malacañang, the Philippines recognizes the critical role of the CTBT as a key confidence-building mechanism to promote cooperation among states and to resolve regional and global security issues.

Meanwhile, Floyd praised the Philippines for its global peace and security contributions through Filipino scientists' high-quality data-gathering and scientific monitoring.

"Your colleagues, your people here, they are doing a super job, and they are contributing to global peace and security by [providing] consistent, good, high-quality data which we put together in Vienna," he told Marcos.

"We share it with all 187 states that belong to our treaty, so you are making a material contribution towards the confidence states can have that nobody can cheat," he added.

Floyd said CTBTO believes the organization has to do everything it can to protect the global norm against nuclear testing during turbulent and uncertain times. This includes the International Monitoring System (IMS), which spans the globe and has a unique network of monitoring stations and laboratories.

The CTBTO maintains 300 stations, monitoring the shaking of the earth’s crust, ocean and atmosphere sound, and any radioactive materials in the atmosphere.

Floyd is in Manila to participate in the 16th ASEAN Regional Forum Inter-Sessional Meeting on Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.