Global Security Newswire

The United States this year is heading three entities expected to establish and carry out nonproliferation policies for the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations, the State Department said on Monday (see GSN, Jan. 23).

Washington is the 2012 chair for the multilateral organization.

The G-8 Nonproliferation Directors Group, which "provides the opportunity for G-8 representatives to consult on key issues concerning the nonproliferation of primarily nuclear -- among other -- weapons of mass destruction and delivery systems," is set to convene in Washington on Wednesday under the leadership of Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman.

Separately, participants in the G-8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction and representatives from 10 other multilateral groups were slated on Tuesday to begin a two-day meeting headed by Bonnie Jenkins, coordinator of threat reduction programs for the State Department (see GSN, May 31, 2011).

In addition, the G-8 Nuclear Safety and Security Group is expected to meet in the U.S. capital on March 7 and 8. The 10-year-old entity is intended "to provide technically informed strategic policy advice on the safe and secure use of nuclear energy worldwide," the State Department said (U.S. State Department release, Jan. 23).