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ndonesia ratified an anti-nuclear weapons treaty on Tuesday in a move the government said was aimed at encouraging nuclear countries to join global efforts to create a nuclear-free world.

The House of Representatives endorsed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) during its plenary session on Tuesday, saying that the nation was committed to supporting a global treaty to ban nuclear explosions for military or civilian purposes.

“We are calling on all countries that have yet to sign and ratify it to follow suit,” Deputy House speaker Priyo Budi Santoso, who presided over the plenary session, said.

Indonesia is the 156th country to ratify the treaty after its adoption by the UN General Assembly in 1996.

The US, China, Egypt, Israel and Iran previously signed but have not ratified the treaty, while India, Pakistan and North Korea have refused to sign. The CTBT will not come into force unless the eight countries ratify it.

Ismet Ahmad, a lawmaker from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said that nuclear-armed countries, especially Israel and the US, must follow suit, adding that “Indonesia’s ratification has no significance unless other nuclear states take the same step.”

US President Barack Obama said in May that the US was preparing a push to approve the treaty, arguing that while the US no longer needed to conduct nuclear tests, it needed to stop other countries from conducting tests, according to Reuters.

The US has not specified when it would seek a Senate vote on the treaty, which the chamber rejected when Obama’s fellow Democrat, Bill Clinton, was president in the 1990s. A two-thirds majority is needed to ratify the treaty.

Obama has made clear that he sees the test ban pact as a step toward his vision of a world without nuclear weapons, like the new START arms reduction treaty the US Senate approved last year.

The treaty bans any nuclear weapon test explosions and prohibits any such explosions in any place under a ratifying nation’s jurisdiction or control. It also stipulates that states must refrain from causing, encouraging or in any way participating in the nuclear test explosions.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa hailed the treaty’s ratification as an important move for strengthening Indonesia’s position as a nation with a strong commitment to non-proliferation and the total elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

“The government is of the opinion that the most effective guarantee against the threats and the use of nuclear weapons is the annihilation of all nuclear weapons, which must done without reservation ... and without double standards.”

Tibor Toth, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), welcomed Indonesia’s ratification of the treaty. “By this historic decision, the gap keeping the treaty from entering into force has been narrowed down to eight countries.”

“This is the day when Indonesia reconfirmed its leadership as a founder of ASEAN and the NAM [Non-Aligned Movement]. This leadership is about saying no to nuclear weapons and saying yes to a treaty that is part of eliminating nuclear weapons,” Toth said in a statement published on CTBTO’s website.

Indonesia was a pioneer in fighting for the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty (SEANFWZ) in 1995.

Marty said ratification of the treaty would boost Indonesia’s position on the global stage. “It will also improve the supervision of nuclear [energy] use only for peace and humanity,” he said.