NTI Hosts 10th Meeting of the Global Dialogue on Nuclear Security Priorities in Velen, Germany

Government officials from 15 countries, industry
representatives, and nongovernment experts gathered in Velen, Germany on Nov
5-6 to discuss steps to ensure that nuclear materials are secured from
terrorists and to speed progress toward a comprehensive and effective global
nuclear security system.

It was the 10^th meeting of the Global Dialogue
on Nuclear Security Priorities, first convened by the Nuclear Threat
Initiative as a Track 1.5 process in 2012 in support of the Nuclear
Security Summits. The Global Dialogue provides a forum for discussion
on sustaining attention and accelerating progress toward improved global
nuclear security.

The 10^th
Global Dialogue in Context

The 10^th Global Dialogue helped participants lay the
groundwork for three subsequent international meetings:

• The second Technical and
  Legal Experts meeting in preparation for the 2021 conference to review the
  Amendment to the Convention on the
  Physical of Nuclear Materials (CPPNM/A). The CPPNM/A is the only
  international convention that requires countries to protect their nuclear
  materials and facilities, and the review conference provides a unique
  opportunity to establish a much-needed regular, substantive dialogue among
  states on nuclear security;
• Official
  deliberations on a draft ministerial declaration to be
  issued by countries at the February 2020 International Atomic Energy Agency
  (IAEA) International Conference on
  Nuclear Security (2020 ICONS), a conference held every three years by the
  IAEA for government officials and experts to discuss nuclear security, and
  which features a one-day ministerial level meeting; and
• A meeting of the Nuclear
  Security Contact Group, established by a group of countries that
  participated in the Nuclear Security Summits to facilitate cooperation and
  sustained engagement on nuclear security after the conclusion of the Nuclear
  Security Summits in 2016.

For more on the significance of these meetings, see a recent
blogpost by NTI Senior Director Samantha Neakrase, “Reviving Political
Momentum to Strengthen Nuclear Security” (October 28, 2019, European
Leadership Network), as well as her article “Strengthening Nuclear
Security with a Sustainable CPPNM Regime” (June 2019, Arms
Control Today).

About
the 10^th Global Dialogue

In addition to government officials and NGOs, the meeting in
Germany included representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), the United Nations, the European Commission, and the World Institute
for Nuclear Security.

To help inform official deliberations, the meeting focused on:

• Options for promoting an ambitious, forward-leaning ministerial
  declaration to be issued by countries at the IAEA’s 2020 ICONS, as well as
  making the case for countries to make new nuclear security commitments at the conference;
• Substantive issues related to the 2021 conference to review the CPPNM/A,
  including how to review implementation of the convention and its adequacy; and
• Regional approaches and tools for strengthening dialogue and
  progress on nuclear security.

The first two topics were supported by NTI papers, available here. Four
experts also contributed discussion papers on regional approaches and tools in
the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean
were, also available here.

The Global Dialogue project is led by NTI Vice President Laura Holgate and NTI Senior Director Samantha Neakrase. Learn
more about the Global Dialogue at www.nti.org/globaldialogue.