Paragraph 1 of Article IX provides that the Treaty shall be of unlimited duration.

Paragraph 2 of Article IX provides that each State Party shall have the right, in exercising its national sovereignty, to withdraw from the Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events related to the subject matter of the Treaty have jeopardized its supreme interests.

On August 11, 1995 President Clinton made the following statement:

In the event that I were informed by the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Energy -- advised by the Nuclear Weapons Council, the Directors of DOE's nuclear weapons laboratories and the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command that a high level of confidence in the safety or reliability of a nuclear weapons type which the two Secretaries consider to be critical to our nuclear deterrent could no longer be certified, I would be prepared, in consultation with Congress, to exercise our "supreme national interests" rights under the CTBT in order to conduct whatever testing might be required. Exercising this right, however, is a decision I believe I or any future President will not have to make. The nuclear weapons in the United States arsenal are safe and reliable, and I am determined our stockpile stewardship program will ensure they remain so in the absence of nuclear testing.

Paragraph 3 of Article IX sets forth the procedures that must be followed when a State Party exercises its right to withdraw from the Treaty. Specifically, paragraph 3 provides that withdrawal can only be effected by giving notice six months in advance to all other States Parties, the Executive Council, the Depositary and the United Nations Security Council. Notice of withdrawal must include a statement of the extraordinary event or events that a State Party regards as jeopardizing its supreme interests.

Note that the provisions of Article IX are similar to those used in numerous other arms control agreements, e.g., the Chemical Weapons Convention (Article XVI), the INF Treaty (Article XV), START (Article XVII(3)), and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (Article X).