On June 14-15, the VCDNP, together with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), held its annual diplomatic workshop in Krems, Austria. Titled “The Promise and Peril of the 2020 NPT Review Conference,” the workshop focused on key non-proliferation and disarmament issues and challenges facing the international community ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Senior diplomats representing over 20 states, senior international organizations officials and representatives of academia and non-governmental organizations participated in the meeting. Representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Comprehensive Test-Ban-Treaty Organization addressed the workshop, and Ambassador Alexander Marschik, Director-General for International Affairs at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, was the keynote speaker at the workshop dinner.
Workshop participants took stock of the outcomes of the preparatory process for the 2020 Review Conference, identified the remaining tasks and discussed the prospects for a successful outcome next year. The crisis in the US-Russian arms control, general lack of progress on nuclear disarmament, unresolved disagreement among NPT states parties on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), the fate of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“Iran Deal”) and uncertainty surrounding next steps on the establishment of a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction were identified among the central challenges in this regard. Participants actively debated disarmament issues, such as the need for the United States and Russia to renew the New START treaty and refrain from engaging in a new arms race, the importance of nuclear risk reduction, and approaches to the US initiative on creating an environment for nuclear disarmament.
In light of the upcoming 25th anniversary of the indefinite extension of the NPT, one of the workshop sessions focused in particular on the stability of the NPT regime and the outlook for the next 25 years. The participants noted the shifting great- and regional power dynamics that affect the global non-proliferation context, the implications of a “generational change,” with the youth not as interested in or familiar with nuclear issues, and the corresponding importance of non-proliferation and disarmament education. Throughout the workshop, while recognizing the gravity of challenges facing the NPT regime, the participants reaffirmed both the commitment to the treaty and the need to approach the next review conference with optimism and high level of ambition.
