The Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) held a diplomatic workshop in Baden, Austria, on 19-20 June 2014. The workshop brought together about three dozen Vienna-based ambassadors, a number of senior officials from international organizations and other institutions—such as UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano, and Lord Des Browne, vice chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative—as well as non-governmental experts from think tanks and academia.
The workshop focused on "Nuclear Verification Challenges and Opportunities," and was modeled after a very successful workshop on issues facing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) that is annually conducted by CNS for senior diplomats in Annecy, France. The Baden meeting featured moderated discussions in an informal environment that encouraged a candid exchange of views, facilitated cross-regional and cross-grouping dialogue, and provided a forum for reviewing and debating both technical and policy issues with regards to current and future key nuclear verification needs and challenges.
In her keynote address, Ms. Kane set the tone of the discussion by examining verification as one of the defining characteristics of a high-quality disarmament instrument. When coupled with other principles such as transparency, irreversibility, and political commitment, verification, said Ms. Kane, "enable(s) mutual trust and confidence to exist, and to produce a perception of a higher level of security than can be achieved by any alternative measure." In such a robust disarmament agreement, she said, "a break-out would not just be unlikely, but impossible."
Lord Des Browne highlighted in his keynote remarks the role of all states, particularly nuclear weapon states, in advancing nuclear disarmament goals and fulfilling their NPT obligations. In his view, "The international community needs a transparent, sustainable, and credible plan for multilateral nuclear disarmament—and measures that can fulfill the requirements for the verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons are central to that plan."
The two-day workshop in Baden included a series of sessions with active discussion among the participants. Topics included:
The VCDNP and CNS plan on annually hosting similar diplomatic workshops in order to openly discuss key nuclear issues of interest to the diplomatic and international organizations community in Vienna. The diplomatic workshop in Baden proved a promising start to such meetings in the future.
