Obama seeking Senate's ratification of protocol for nuclear-weapon-free treaty on C. Asia

President Barack Obama on Monday submitted to the Senate the protocol for a nuclear-weapon- free treaty on Central Asia, saying its ratification is "in the best interest" of the United States.

In his message to the Senate, the president said the Protocol to the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ) in Central Asia, once ratified by the chamber of Congress, will "enhance U.S. security by furthering our objective of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons."

The protocol, signed by representatives of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States on May 6, 2014 in New York, provides legally-binding assurances not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against parties to the NWFZ parties.

Enacted in 2009, the treaty commits the signatories -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- to refrain from developing, acquiring or possessing nuclear weapons.

The National People's Congress, China's top legislature, ratified the protocol last Friday.

Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman of the White House National Security Council, released a statement calling for an early ratification by the Senate of the protocol and those to the NWFZ treaties on Africa and the South Pacific already submitted.

She said the Obama administration will continue to work toward the signing of a protocol to the NWFZ treaty on Southeast Asia. Endite