WITH one final Chinese blast, global nuclear testing came to an and in theory yesterday morning. But just hours after Beijing had hereby solemnly declared that it would now observe a moratorium on tests, talks on a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) reconvened in Geneva with negotiators still struggling to devise a text that India and China would accept.
Time is now running out if the CTBT is to be ready for signing at the UN General Assembly in New York in September, as had been scheduled. At the moment, India is posing the biggest hurdle, by insisting that the CTBT must promote disarmament as well as curtailing tests.
Delhi wants the treaty to include a pledge for nuclear powers to dismantle existing nuclear weapons. If India refuses to sign, as is widely expected, the treaty will not be legally binding.
Meanwhile China, backed by India, is objecting to proposed measures for monitoring and verifying the global test ban, saying that such on site inspections could be used for intelligence gathering by the West.
The US and Russia believe Beijing will reach a compromise on this sticking point, and the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Qian Qichen, last week said he hoped the treaty would be signed in September.
In early June, China dropped its initial insistence that "peaceful" nuclear explosions be exempt from the test ban, although it wants the issue reassessed after 10 years.
China's underground nuclear explosion yesterday morning, at its Lop Nor site in western Xinjiang province, was its 45th since Beijing started tests in 1964. By halting its programme now, China has ensured it will sit level with Britain in the league table of nuclear tests.
Beijing's much repeated riposte to worldwide criticism for being the last country to observe the moratorium has always been that it has conducted fewer tests than the other big nuclear powers.
According to Greenpeace, the final test scorecard reads the US, 1,030 the former USSR, 715 France, 210 Britain, 45 China, 45 and India, probably one.
The Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, said. The ending of Chinese nuclear testing means that no nuclear weapons state is any longer conducting nuclear tests." He hoped the test would be the last nuclear test that will ever take place".
Yesterday, after years on the defensive about its continuing tests, Beijing was seeking the higher moral ground. "Such an important decision by China is not only a response to the appeal of the vast number of non-nuclear weapon states, but also a concrete action to promote nuclear disarmament", it said.
China is believed to have the smallest nuclear arsenal of the five nuclear powers. The government statement called on nuclear powers "drastically to reduce" nuclear stockpiles.
China's Asian neighbours yesterday nevertheless roundly criticised Beijing for conducting one last test, but welcomed the new moratorium.
. The Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, expressed serious concern" at the report of the Chinese test. It was not in keeping with the spirit of last year's NPT review and extension conference which agreed that "the utmost restraint" should be exercised pending the comprehensive treaty, he said.
. At least five protesters from the environmental group Greenpeace occupied the Chinese embassy in Wellington, Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Chinese ambassador was summoned to hear a protest over the Chinese nuclear test from the Foreign Minister, Mr Don McKinnon.