"Indonesian Ambassador to Austria and Slovenia, Rachmat Budiman, in his capacity as a copresident of the Article XIV Process, made the remarks in connection with the CTBT Conference to be held in New York next September," social and cultural counselor and information affairs officer of the Indonesian Embassy in Vienna, Dody Kusumonegoro, said on Monday as quoted by Antara news agency.

He said that the ambassador had chaired a series of consultation meetings regarding the conference on the universality and the implementation of the CTBT in New York.

The embassy spokesman said that the conference is held once every two years to encourage countries to ratify the treaty, particularly countries that are contained in Appendix 2 of the treaty.

At present eight countries in Appendix 2 have yet to ratify the treaty, namely the US, China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, Israel and North Korea.

Indonesia and Hungary have been copresidents of the Article XIV Process since 2013. Their chairpersonship will end in September 2015.

According to Dody, Ambassador Rachmat has stressed that for Indonesia the implementation of the treaty is a matter of principle because it has an important role in creating world peace.

Therefore, Indonesia continues to encourage countries to take concrete actions in ratifying the treaty, even if Indonesia is no longer a cochair of the Article XIV Process after September 2015.

Besides the eight countries contained in the appendix, Indonesia also called on other countries such as Myanmar and Thailand to ratify the treaty. (hhr)

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