IPNDV Conducts Working Meeting in New Mexico

The International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV) convened its most recent working meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico from April 24-28, 2023, hosted by Sandia National Laboratories.

Mallory Stewart, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance at the U.S. Department of State, welcomed the Partners to the meeting and spoke to the value of the IPNDV’s contributions amid a period of increased geopolitical tension. “The IPNDV’s consistent and effective work…will undoubtedly aid in our collective fight to reduce current nuclear dangers and to facilitate future arms control and disarmament efforts.”

In December 2022, the Partners revised their working group structure to better facilitate coordination and information exchange among participants. There are now four working groups: the Limitations Working Group, the Reductions Working Group, the Concepts Working Group, and the Technology Track. The Albuquerque meeting was the first in-person meeting of the newly configured working groups.

At the end of the week, the Partners had the opportunity to participate in a Sandia-hosted workshop exploring multilateral development of information barriers, where they focused on requirements and concepts for the application of information barriers to nuclear disarmament verification.

Virtual meetings of all four working groups will continue to address these issues over the coming months. The Partners will reconvene in Budapest, Hungary in September 2023 to take stock of the progress made since the Sandia meeting and chart a path forward for the remainder of the year.