Yesterday evening a preparatory meeting for the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference was successfully concluded in New York. The participants reached a unanimous agreement on the Review Conference agenda. Together with its EU partners, Germany played a major role in ensuring that the equal enhancement of all three pillars of the NPT – nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy – was at the forefront of the meeting.

Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed this outcome in the following statement issued in Berlin today (16 May):

“Disarmament is once again right at the top of the international agenda, as demonstrated by the results of the New York NPT meeting and the concrete efforts by Russia and the USA to reach a successor agreement aimed at reducing their nuclear-warhead arsenals. We must use this new impetus for global disarmament and arms control – I call for the rapid start of talks on a verifiable halt to the production of weapons-grade nuclear material (FMCT). Germany and its EU partners have come up with specific proposals to that end.”