VERTIC’s Verification and Monitoring (VM) Programme recently completed two workshops aimed at gathering views on a prospective multilateral Group of Scientific Experts for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (GSE-NDV). These follow similar workshops, for European and African stakeholders in April 2017.
The first was held in Tokyo from 26–27 August 2017 in collaboration with the Tokyo Institute of Technology while the second took place in Rio de Janeiro from 31 August-1 September with support from the Nonproliferation for Global Security Foundation.
VERTIC’s Verification and Monitoring (VM) Programme recently completed two workshops aimed at gathering views on a prospective multilateral Group of Scientific Experts for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (GSE-NDV). These follow similar workshops, for European and African stakeholders in April 2017.
The first was held in Tokyo from 26–27 August 2017 in collaboration with the Tokyo Institute of Technology while the second took place in Rio de Janeiro from 31 August-1 September with support from the Nonproliferation for Global Security Foundation.
The workshops involved researchers, diplomats and policy makers drawn from Australia, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, and from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico.
All individuals – whether from governments, multilateral organisations or research institutes – took part in their personal capacity and contributed subject to the Chatham House rule.
On 14 December 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 71/67, entitled ‘Nuclear disarmament verification.’ The resolution, adopted with 175 states voting in favour and none against, instructs UN Secretary-General António Guterres to establish a ‘Group of Governmental Experts’ (GGE) later in 2017 to ‘consider the role of verification in advancing nuclear disarmament.’ The group, comprising 25 experts, will meet in Geneva in 2018 and 2019 for a total of three sessions of five days each. The GGE will submit its final report to the General Assembly in 2019.
The VERTIC series of four regional consultations is designed to reflect on this process, by examining the idea to form a scientifically oriented group in the early 2020s, based on the CTBT group of scientific experts and other similar groups established in the arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation field.
The VM Programme will now produce a report outlining its assessment of the feasibility or desirability of a multilateral Group of Scientific Experts for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (GSE-NDV) based on the views expressed in all four consultative workshops. This report will be launched at a side-event during the UN First Committee in October or November 2017.
