VIENNA, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- There is an urgent need for the world to address nuclear testing, and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) plays a vital role in preventing future tests, two UN officials said as the world celebrates the International Day Against Nuclear Tests on Friday.

"Eighty years after both the founding of the United Nations and the first use of nuclear weapons, the world must summon the courage and conviction to finally turn the page," said an op-ed piece authored by Philemon Yang, president of the United Nations General Assembly, and Robert Floyd, executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.

Titled "From Trinity to Today: Turning the Page on Nuclear Testing," the article called for courage and conviction to bring the CTBT into force.

It said that the opening for signature of the CTBT in 1996 was an important step in the right direction. "This landmark Treaty significantly enhanced global security, creating a global norm against nuclear testing. Since then, fewer than a dozen nuclear tests have taken place."

In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly declared Aug. 29 the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, commemorating the closing of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in present-day Kazakhstan on the same date in 1991. That site alone saw 456 nuclear test explosions over four decades. This day is a solemn reminder that nuclear testing must become a relic of the past. ■