From the 27th until the 29th of June, Belgium hosts a meeting of the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV) in the Egmont Palace in Brussels.
Over the past three decades, the number of nuclear weapons has decreased tremendously from the peak arsenals of the Cold War. Key to these substantial reductions has been the ability of countries to verify each other’s compliance with implementing the treaties.
The importance of verification in future nuclear disarmament efforts is paramount and requires increasing the collective capacity of nations to address verification issues.With this end in mind, the US Government launched the IPNDV in December 2014. The IPNDV consists of more than 25 countries, among which Belgium, that address the complex challenges associated with monitoring and verifying nuclear weapon dismantlement.
The organization of the meeting is part of Belgium’s commitment to a world without nuclear weapons. The role of verification in global nuclear disarmament efforts will be a priority theme for the Belgian delegation at the upcoming review conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, taking place in August in New York.