September 20, 2011: Guinea ratifies the CTBT
July 28-29, 2011: First high-level meeting between the US and North Korea in two years takes place between U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth and North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan in New York. US displayed willingness to restart talks if North Korea demonstrates commitment to a constructive attitude during negotiations.
December 13, 2012: P5+1 talks with Iran in Tehran
December 8, 2012: Marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty by former US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
The UN Conference on Disarmament (CD) begins its second session of the year this week, convening from May 13th until June 28th. Attempts in the CD to open negotiations on a treaty banning fissile materials for nuclear weapons use have been sitting in stalemate for, quite literally, decades.
BASIC organised a private roundtable with experts and officials on March 8, 2013 to take stock of the current strategic and political dynamics surrounding negotiations on a Fissile Material (Cut-Off) Treaty.
An FMCT would require that all member states refrain from producing additional bomb-grade fuel for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, but would not obligate them to reduce existing stockpiles. There is no agreed-upon text for such a treaty. The Conference on Disarmament (CD) has been the main venue for negotiations.
South Asia is often cited as the most intractable bilateral nuclear dispute on the planet. Even setting aside the divisive issue of Kashmir, the dispute between India and Pakistan has the added complexity that it involves at root the very identity of the two states.
Independent and informal talks are pursued by nations on the fissile material cutoff treaty in attempts to smooth the way for negotiations at the International Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland
Ask any diplomat what is happening at the Conference on Disarmament (CD) when a session resumes and the question usually provokes a burst of derisive laughter. The CD session which opens today in Geneva, where attempts to launch negotiations on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) remain in the deep freeze, is no exception.