As diplomats debate the draft final document of the 10th NPT Review Conference, former disarmament ambassador and ELN senior network member, Carlo Trezza, argues that the severity of the wounds to international norms in Ukraine will “make it necessary – if consensus fails – to have recourse to a vote”.
As the 10th NPT RevCon continues, the Head of the Philippine Delegation to the RevCon, Carlos D. Sorreta, warns that NATO’s plans to increase defence spending ignore Russia’s diminished military capabilities. As Russia cannot keep up with the West’s conventional arms build-up, it will rely more heavily on its nuclear force which will lead to a new arms race and increased tensions.
As the 2022 NPT RevCon enters its second week in New York, there have been reports of its noticeable lack of diversity. Olamide Samuel gives a personal account of his efforts to secure an Austrian and US visa to attend nuclear policy conferences this summer and calls on conference organisers to pay attention to the visa regimes that pose logistical barriers to entry for people from the global south.
Analysing the discussions at the First Meeting of the States Parties of the TPNW last month, Michal Onderco and Valerio Vignoli find that there are real divisions among ban treaty members. As delegates to the RevCon begin their deliberations in New York this week, they will benefit from understanding that there is enough common ground to build coalitions with nuclear ban supporters.
At the end of June, the first Meeting of States Parties to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) took place in Vienna. At this inaugural meeting, states parties to the TPNW gathered to commit to concrete actions to implement obligations under the Treaty. ELN network member Tarja Cronberg participated in the meeting and shares her reflections with us.
Given the current situation in Ukraine, Kapil Patil argues that we must seriously rethink the extant nuclear safety regimes and how best the international community can reinforce the global nuclear safety and security norms.