The first Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference is currently meeting in Vienna, Austria.
The first session of the committee, led by Ambassador Henk Cor Van der Kwast of the Netherlands, will meet until May 12; two more sessions will be convened after that, before the 2020 conference, to address substantive issues concerning the treaty. Member states will at the review conference discuss the implementation of the treaty, issues related to nonproliferation and disarmament, and recommendations to strengthen NPT provisions.
The NPT, in force since 1970, prohibits most of its 191 states parties from acquiring, possessing, or developing nuclear weapons, while forbidding the five-nuclear weapon states — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — from helping any other treaty government acquire such a weapon. The accord is considered the basis for the global nonproliferation regime and eventual nuclear disarmament.
Robert Wood, U.S. permanent representative to the Conference on Disarmament, on Tuesday spoke in support of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s work in nuclear security and safeguards measures and highlighted worsening security conditions worldwide, “with renewed tensions and growing nuclear stockpiles in some regions.”
Wood pointed to North Korea’s nuclear enrichment and reprocessing operations, as well as its nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches, as the greatest security challenge in the world today. He also highlighted U.S. support for the IAEA, noting the nation will contribute another $50 million – on top of an initial $50 million pledge – to the agency’s Technical Cooperation Program. The IAEA through this program helps member states build capacity for the peaceful use of nuclear technology.
Wood also announced a U.S. pledge of 1 million euros in support of the IAEA’s renovation of its Nuclear Applications Laboratories, on top of 8.9 million euros already given for this purpose. The project seeks to upgrade IAEA equipment and infrastructure for its projects on peaceful uses of nuclear energy, at laboratories that support applications such as agriculture, health, and the environment.
The treaty comes under review every five years, with the last NPT Review Conference held in 2015. That event ended without consensus on a final document, primarily due to the question of creating a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone in the Middle East.
