The World Summit on Nuclear Security was held from 12 to 13 April 2010. The summit was proposed by President Obama in Prague and aimed to strengthen the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in conjunction with the Proliferation Security Initiative and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. [125] Forty-seven states and three international organizations participated in the summit,[126] which issued a communiqué[127] and a work plan. [128] For more information, see the 2010 Nuclear Safety Summit. One of the main activities of the Geneva ODA Section is to provide secretariat, administrative and substantive support to the Conference on Disarmament; Maintenance of a reference library with documentation related to disarmament and international security; providing secretariat, administrative and substantive support to conferences and meetings on multilateral disarmament agreements in Europe; and monitoring the implementation of the United Nations programme on disarmament scholarships, training and counselling. On 2 September, Bangladesh issued a statement on negative security assurances on behalf of the Group of 21. The Group stressed the need to reach agreement on a universal, unconditional and legally binding instrument to protect non-nuclear-weapon States from the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. Where mutually convenient, the United States and the Soviet Union concluded bilateral arms control agreements that cemented their own strategic relations, but contributed little to disarmament, as both continued to modernize and expand their nuclear arsenals. With the exception of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), which deals with certain types of conventional weapons considered “excessively harmful” and “indiscriminate”, little progress in multilateral disarmament was possible until the end of the cold war.
The first United Nations Special Session on Disarmament (SSOD I) in 1978 identified key objectives and created the Conference on Disarmament (CD), but had little influence on the military and diplomatic actions of major states. Although membership in the Conference on Disarmament has been classified as multilateral, it has been awarded to fewer than 40 States (it increased to 60 a few months before the conclusion of the CTBT). Non-members could observe, but in a consensual institution, they did not have full participation and rights. According to critics, States that possess nuclear weapons but do not have the right to do so under the NPT have not paid a significant price for their search for weapons capabilities. In addition, the NPT has been explicitly weakened by a number of bilateral agreements between NPT signatories, in particular the United States. [7] From 3 to 21 April, the UN Disarmament Commission met in New York for a substantive discussion in 2017. Participants in two working groups discussed challenges related to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation efforts, as well as issues related to conventional weapons. The 7. In August, the Conference on Disarmament held the first public plenary meetings of the latter part of the 2018 session.
The plenary sessions began with an introductory remark by Mr. Michael Moller, Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament. He reiterated the three priorities on the Secretary-General`s disarmament agenda, including: “Disarmament to save humanity, disarmament that saves lives and disarmament for future generations”. Austria issued a statement on behalf of the European Union reaffirming the need for disarmament and the importance of multilateralism. The Conference on Disarmament and its predecessors have negotiated multilateral arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament agreements such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Treaties on Environmental Change and the Seabed, the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BTWC), the Chemical Weapons Convention (CTB) and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). From 26 to 27 April, the States parties to the Biological Weapons Convention met in Geneva for the Preparatory Committee for the Eighth Review Conference. States agreed on the necessary procedural arrangements for the BTWC Review Conference to be held in December and for the Preparatory Committee to follow in August. These include the election of the Hungarian Ambassador, Dr György Molnár, as Chair of the Preparatory Committee and the appointment of Dr Molnár as Chairperson of the Eighth Review Conference.
The Committee confirmed the dates and duration of subsequent BTWC meetings in 2016, made financial arrangements and heard a general exchange of views that enabled States to define overall priorities and expectations for the Review Conference. According to a report issued by the United States in 2001, China had provided Pakistan with nuclear material and provided essential technological support in the construction of Pakistan`s nuclear weapons development facilities, in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that China had already signed at the time. [118] [119] On September 14, the Conference on Disarmament adopted its 2017 annual report to the General Assembly […].