Alexander Kmentt is an Austrian career diplomat and served as President of the 1st Meeting of States Parties of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in June 2022, alongside his role as Director of Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-proliferation at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Alexander returned to the Austrian Foreign Ministry following a two-year sabbatical as a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College, London (2019-2021), which culminated in the writing and publication of his book, The Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons: how it was achieved and why it matters (published May 2021).
In 2016, Ambassador Kmentt was appointed Austrian Permanent Representative to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union, responsible for developing the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CSFP) and the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).
Alexander Kmentt has worked extensively on disarmament and non-proliferation issues, notably as Ambassador and Director of the Department for Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-Proliferation at the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, as Deputy Permanent Representative of Austria to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and as Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary in the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty Organization.
Alexander Kmentt is one of the architects of the initiative on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). He was responsible for the organisation of the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in December 2014, for which he developed the Austrian Pledge – later re-named Humanitarian Pledge – subsequently receiving the formal support of 135 States and which was an important catalyst for the TPNW. In 2015, Ambassador Kmentt was elected “Arms Control Person of the Year” by the US-based Arms Control Association.
Ambassador Kmentt holds an Austrian Law Degree and an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge.
