Many states and regional groups have expressed increasing concern over nuclear risks. Summing up this sentiment, UN Secretary-General António Guterres noted “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation”. And while some steps to decrease nuclear risks have been taken, much more needs to be done.
To address this issue, UNIDIR and Switzerland hosted a side event on “Nuclear Risk Reduction: From Ideas to Action” at the Second session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 NPT Review Conference. The event presented different approaches to reducing nuclear risks inside and outside of the NPT review process, took stock of proposed and implemented risk reduction measures and discussed practical solutions for moving forward.
Event Recording
Agenda
- Amb. Julien Thöni, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the Conference on Disarmament – Opening remarks.
- Amb. Robert in den Bosch, Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament of the Kingdom of the Netherlands – Opening remarks.
- Mr. Fredrik Brogeland Laache, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Norway – Opening remarks.
- Amb. Michael Biontino, Co-chair of the Working Group 3, Creating an Environment for Nuclear Disarmament (CEND).
- Ms. Ann-Sofie Nilsson, Deputy Director-General, Head of Department for Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Export Control, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden.
- Amb. Shen Jian, Permanent Representative of People’s Republic of China to the Conference on Disarmament.
- Amb. Lucy Duncan, Permanent Representative of New Zealand to the United Nations and Other International Agencies in Geneva.
- Mr. Andrey Baklitskiy, Senior Researcher, WMD Programme, UNIDIR.
The event was moderated by Ms. Sarah-Ruth Opatowski, Research Assistant, WMD Programme and ME WMD-Free Zone Project, UNIDIR.
When and Where
This event took place on Monday 29 July 2024, 13:15-14:45 CEST, online and room XXIV, Palais des Nations, Geneva.