The 8th NPT Review Conference opened at the U.N. Headquarters in New York on Monday.
The conference participants will discuss how to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and illegal turnover of nuclear materials.
The NPT review conference is held every five years starting from 1970 when the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty entered into force. Efforts were made at each conference to reach consensus on the final declaration that should evaluate compliance with the treaty and give recommendations on how to strengthen it further.
It is expected that the current 8th NPT Review Conference will consider a number of issues, including those discussed at the 2005 conference, such as the universal nature of the NPT, nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, measures to develop peaceful uses of atomic power for security purposes, issues of regional disarmament and non-proliferation, as well as the implementation of the 1995 resolution on the Middle East.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are expected to take the floor on the first day of the conference. It seems that Ahmadinejad will be the only head of state to attend the conference, with all the other countries being represented by foreign ministers, deputy foreign ministers and ambassadors. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov will speak at the conference on behalf of Russia on May 4.
The NPT was signed in 1968. It formalised the nuclear power status of five countries – Russia, Great Britain, the United States, China and France – and was designed to prevent the further spread of nuclear weapons. This legalised the arsenals of the “nuclear five” countries and all the other countries that signed the document had no right to create or buy weapons of mass destruction.
In 1995, the NPT was extended indefinitely. Up to date, 189 states have signed the NPT. India, Pakistan, and Israel remain outside the treaty. North Korea withdrew from the NPT in January 2003.