On 30 October 2017, VERTIC and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) hosted a seminar to discuss views on the possibility of establishing a Group of Scientific and Technical Experts on Nuclear Disarmament Verification. The meeting was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. At the seminar, VERTIC reported on the results of a series of regional consultations it had convened on the idea and distributed an embargoed publication summarising these discussions.
On 30 October 2017, VERTIC and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) hosted a seminar to discuss views on the possibility of establishing a Group of Scientific and Technical Experts on Nuclear Disarmament Verification. The meeting was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. At the seminar, VERTIC reported on the results of a series of regional consultations it had convened on the idea and distributed an embargoed publication summarising these discussions.
The forthcoming report is based on a series of four consultations held in Austria, South Africa, Japan, and Brazil. Each meeting comprised academics, non-governmental and governmental representatives. VERTIC remains grateful for our partners, the Vienna Centre for Disarmament and Nonproliferation (‘VCDNP’), the Nonproliferation for Global Security Foundation (‘NPS-Global’) and the Tokyo Institute of Technology (‘Tokyo Tech’) for their work with us on this project. In total, 63 delegates, not counting our own staff, participated in the meetings.
The meetings discussed the merits and pitfalls with the establishment of a Group of Scientific Experts on Nuclear Disarmament Verification. Moreover, one regional delegate was asked to produce one paper on the benefits of scientific and technical collaboration for their own region.
The series of meetings consultations indicated that forming such a body could be a significant step in advancing international efforts on the issue of disarmament verification. Nonetheless, they also recognised that several questions would need to be discussed further, including on the mandate, composition and potential activities of such a group. The seminar was well attended by representatives from several states and non-governmental organisations. VERTIC would like to thank UNODA for co-hosting the meeting, the government of Norway for supporting the project and all those who took part in the consultations and the seminar for their contributions.
VERTIC was represented by Andreas Persbo, Executive Director, and Larry MacFaul, Programme Director for Verification and Monitoring. The meeting also heard opening remarks from Mr Ioan Tudor of the Office for Disarmament Affairs and Mr Erik Berger Husem from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Our presentation is available here.
