A team from BASIC including Executive Director Sebastian Brixey-Williams, Senior Policy Fellow Manuel Herrera, and Policy Fellows Aisling Burns, Lyndon Burford, Dave Cullen, and Anahita Parsa, attended the Preparatory Committee meeting of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at the UN Headquarters in New York from 28 April to 9 May 2025.
Our team played an active role in discussions to address substantive issues related to the NPT and the forthcoming Review Conference meeting next year. But regrettably, the Preparatory Committee ended without any consensus.
The NPT is the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime. While the treaty was indefinitely extended in 1995 – meaning that it does not need to be renewed – it is reviewed every five years and is now in its 11th Review Cycle: a process that involves three Preparatory Committee meetings ahead of the 2026 Review Conference.
“The BASIC team attended the 2025 NPT Preparatory Committee in order to present ongoing projects to the delegations of the States Parties and to involve them in their development,” said Manuel, who is also Programme Manager of BASIC’s Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Programme.
“In this regard, the BASIC team hosted two side events and a roundtable, where they presented the activities related to the NPT Monitor, the Nuclear Transparency Inventory (NUTRI), and the Emerging Voices Network (EVN), which also organised a side event at the conference led by EVN Programme Manager Dave Cullen.
“We were able to obtain explicit support from several delegations for all our work and establish solid links for future engagements with States Parties, as well as getting inputs to help shape the analytical frameworks of the NPT Monitor and NUTRI projects.
“The most prominent issue during the Preparatory Committee was discussion of transparency and accountability, particularly regarding the implementation of NPT obligations and commitments by the five Nuclear Weapon States recognised under the Treaty. In this regard, the United Kingdom and France each hosted a side event where they presented their draft reports on measures taken to implement commitments from the Action Plan agreed at the 2010 Review Conference. The final versions of these national reports will be presented to the Review Conference next year.
“The general mood was one of dissatisfaction and uncertainty as the Preparatory Committee ended without a consensus set of recommendations, leaving States Parties in a position of gambling everything on negotiations at next year’s Review Conference.
“If the 2026 Review Conference fails to produce a consensus outcome document, it will represent the third consecutive failure in this endeavour and could leave the NPT in permanent doubt.”