Reducing the threat of nuclear weapons must also be on President Obama’s foreign policy to-do list for 2016 (Editorial, Jan. 1) A good place to start is achieving ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty in the Senate.

This treaty bans all nuclear test explosions. According to the Canberra Commission on nuclear disarmament, ratifying the CTBT is a major psychological hurdle for the world. The treaty represents a step away from the international tensions that are caused by nuclear test explosions.

However, eight nations — the United States, Israel, Iran, Egypt, China, North Korea, India, and Pakistan — have yet to ratify the treaty.

As a result, there are international monitoring stations, including some in Iran, that are not active. These stations are part of the global monitoring system that ensures that nations do not conduct secret nuclear test explosions, which are in violation of the CTBT.

We want all nuclear powers to close the door on nuclear testing forever. The CTBT can help create the conditions where nuclear disarmament could take place.

With the cost of nuclear weapons, both financial and political, it’s clearly in every nation’s interest to proceed to a world free from these weapons. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty can start us on this road to peace.

William Lambers

Cincinnati