As we mark the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy signing the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, there is some very alarming news. Reports of increased activity at the nuclear weapons test sites of Russia, China and the U.S. are raising fears of new nuclear test explosions.

CNN reported in September that “Russia, the United States and China have all built new facilities and dug new tunnels at their nuclear test sites in recent years.”

These are potential steps toward resuming nuclear weapons testing. All three nations have refrained from nuclear test explosions since the 1990s. If that moratorium were to end it would be a tragedy for the world and spark a new arms race.

What needs to happen is for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which bans all nuclear test explosions, to take effect. That is what President Kennedy envisioned 60 years ago when he signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, a first step toward ending all such test explosions.

After the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 brought the Soviet Union and the United States to the brink of nuclear war, there was a renewed urgency for diplomacy. One result was the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963 in which the United States, Soviet Union and other nations banned nuke tests in the atmosphere, underwater and outer space. Underground nuclear tests would continue.

JFK worked hard to get the treaty approved in the U.S. Senate and after successfully doing so, signed it into law on October 7, 1963.

At the treaty signing JFK said, “But this treaty need not fail. This small step toward safety can be followed by others longer and less limited, if also harder in the taking. With our courage and understanding enlarged by this achievement, let us press onward in quest of man’s essential desire for peace.”

Kennedy wanted a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, but it was not until 1996 when such an agreement was formed. But tragically the U.S. Senate has not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The treaty has become victim to partisan politics with Republicans opposing the pact.

Interestingly it was a Republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, who began negotiations with the Soviet Union on achieving a nuclear test ban treaty. It was Eisenhower and members of his administration that also supported JFK’s efforts to achieve passage of the Limited Test Ban Treaty. We need to regain that bipartisan spirit and get the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified. That would be good for America and the world.

As JFK realized, American leadership was needed to get a test ban treaty passed. If we fail to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty today, how can we expect other nations to join the treaty or work toward nuclear disarmament? There is the danger of Russia leaving the treaty and testing nukes again. We need China to ratify the treaty. There are eight holdout nations that need to ratify the treaty (United States, China, Israel, Iran, India, North Korea, Pakistan and Egypt).

It’s in the interest of all nations to end nuclear testing once and for all and to work toward disarmament. No nation can afford to waste its precious resources on nuke testing and development, especially with so many pressing concerns.

As JFK said upon signing the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. “This treaty is the first fruit of labor in which multitudes have shared — citizens, legislators, statesmen, diplomats, and soldiers, too.”

Today it will also take a team effort. Each of us can encourage our Senators to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and regain U.S. leadership toward ending the nuclear threat.

William Lambers is the author of “The Road to Peace” and partnered with the U.N. World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.”