NPT Second Preparatory Committee EU Statement on Cluster I

European Union

EU Statement on Cluster I

Second Preparatory Committee for the 11th Review Conference of the Parties

to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)

Geneva, 22 July - 2 August 2024

Mr. Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.

The candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and the EFTA country Iceland, the member of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement.

The EU strongly supports all three pillars of the NPT and will continue to promote a comprehensive, balanced, and substantive full implementation of the 2010 Review Conference Action Plan. We stress the need to implement all obligations under the NPT and commitments from previous Review Conferences, including the need for concrete progress towards the full implementation of Article VI, with the ultimate goal of total elimination of nuclear weapons. We are resolved to seek a safer and more secure world for all in accordance with the goals of the Treaty in a way that promotes international stability, peace and security.

The EU notes the very severe consequences associated with nuclear weapons use and emphasises that all States share the responsibility to prevent such an occurrence from happening.

The EU condemns Russia's actions, irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and threats to use nuclear force in its illegal, unjustified and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine, which further demonstrate how Russiaundermines international peace and security. We are deeply concerned by the latest non-strategic nuclear weapons exercise by Russiaand Belarus. We urge Russia to abide by the principles enshrined in the Joint Statement of the Leaders of the Five Nuclear-Weapon States on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding Arms Races that it co-authored in January 2022.

We are deeply concerned by Russia's announced deployment of nuclear weapons on Belarussian territory. We recall the commitment Belarus made in the Budapest Memorandum 'to eliminate all nuclear weapons from [its] territory'. We therefore urgently call on Russia and Belarus to reverse this decision and to abide by all their aforementioned commitments. We also call on the Belarus authorities to put an immediate stop to their support of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and to reverse any decision that would contribute to heightening existing tensions in the region.

Mr. Chair,

EU Member States remain committed to the pursuit of nuclear disarmament, in accordance with Article VI of the NPT. We stress the need for concrete progress towards the full implementation of Article VI, especially through the overall reduction in the global stockpile of nuclear weapons, taking into account the special responsibility of the States that possess the largest nuclear arsenals.

The reduction of deployed strategic nuclear weapons under the New START Treaty, enhanced notably by its robust verification mechanism, contributes to the implementation of Article VI of the NPT through the overall reduction in the global stockpile of deployed nuclear weapons. The EU is deeply concerned about Russia's purported suspension of the New START Treaty. We call on Russia to immediately return to compliance with the New START Treaty and fulfil all its obligations, including by facilitating New START inspections on Russian territory, and by returning to participation in the Treaty's implementation body, the Bilateral Consultative Commission. Recalling the obligations for all nuclear-weapon States arising from Art. VI of the NPT, we underline that the two nuclear-weapon States with the largest arsenals hold a special responsibility in the area of nuclear disarmament and arms control. We underscore the importance of a successor agreement to New START in the interest ofinternational peace and security and for the prevention of a new nuclear arms race.

The EU recalls Action 5 of the NPT 2010 Action Plan, which inter alia calls upon nuclear-weapons States to enhance transparency and increase mutual confidence. The EU acknowledges the efforts by some nuclear-weapon States, including France, to demonstrate increased transparency on their doctrines and the nuclear weapons they possess and calls on others to do likewise, noting the proposals in the EU's working paper on the subject (NPT.CONF.2026/PC.II/WP.6).

Given the rapid and extensive build-up of China's nuclear arsenal, we call on China to join future arms control agreements and to respond positively to calls for an arms control dialogue as a first step. We urge China to immediately take measures to improve the transparency of its nuclear weapons and doctrine, to refrain from further build-up, which is not in line with its commitments under the NPT, and pursue risk reduction measures in light of the unequivocal undertaking of the nuclear-weapon States to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals.

Mr. Chair,

The EU also highlights:

- its support for intensified dialogue, including on strategic stability, increased transparency and confidence building measures by nuclear-weapon States to promote further progress on disarmament;

- its call for the immediate commencement and early conclusion of negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament of a Treaty banning the production of fissile material for use in nuclear weapons or other explosive devices in accordance with document CD/1299 and the mandate contained therein.Pending a future FMCT in force, the EU calls on China and all other States concerned to declare and uphold an immediate moratorium on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear devices;

- the need to promote universal adherence to and the entry into force of the CTBT, and that to this end all States that have not yet done so, in particular those listed in Annex 2, need to sign and ratify the CTBT without any preconditions or further delay. In the meantime, we call on all States to abide by the moratorium on nuclear weapon test explosions or any other nuclear explosion, and to refrain from any action that would defeat the object and purpose of the Treaty. In this regards, we call on all concerned States to continue to honour their engagements. We deeply deplore the unprecedented decision of Russia to revoke its ratification of the CTBT and expect Russia to maintain its contribution to the International Monitoring System (IMS);

- the benefits of concrete work on risk reduction and therefore the urgent need for all States concerned to discuss, agree and implement practical measures to that end;

- the value of multilateral cooperation advancing nuclear disarmament verification. We will continue to support the actions taken by a number of States, including EU Member States, to consider the role of nuclear verification in advancing nuclear disarmament and support further efforts in all relevant fora, including the GGE, the Quad nuclear verification partnership, the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV), the tenth anniversary of which was commemorated in 2024, and the NuDiVe exercise. While verification is not an end in itself, further development of nuclear disarmament verification capabilities would facilitate progress onnuclear disarmament.

To underline the EU commitment to the aforementioned priorities, we would like to take this opportunity to promote the EU Working Paper on The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (NPT/CONF.2026/PCII/WP.1), the EU Working Paper on Enhancing Transparency and Accountability in the Implementation of NPT Obligations and Commitments (NPT.CONF.2026/PC.II/WP.6) and the Working Paper entitled 'Towards an FMCT: Advancing the objective of stopping fissile material production for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices in this NPT Review Cycle' (NPT.CONF.2026/PC.II/WP.12) submitted on behalf of Argentina, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Japan, Peru, the Philippines, Republic of Korea and the EU.

The EU recognises the legitimate interest of non-nuclear-weapon States in receiving unequivocal security assurances from nuclear-weapon States as part of binding and agreed security arrangements. We stress the importance of continued reaffirmation by nuclear-weapon States of their existing security assurances noted by relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

Finally, the EU supports disarmament and non-proliferation education, to which the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium is contributing with various activities.

Thank you, Mr. Chair

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