Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is travelling to Amman tomorrow (Wednesday, 6 January) to join his Jordanian and Swedish counterparts, Ayman Safadi and Ann Linde, for the third ministerial meeting of the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament.

The Stockholm Initiative was launched in 2019 with the aim of strengthening disarmament diplomacy within the context of the Non‑Proliferation Treaty. Article VI of the Non‑Proliferation Treaty obliges the nuclear‑weapon states to pursue steps towards nuclear disarmament. The members of the Stockholm Initiative want to inject fresh impetus into nuclear disarmament before the next NPT Review Conference this summer, and to build bridges between nuclear‑weapon states and non‑uclear-weapon states. As well as Sweden and Germany, the Stockholm Initiative includes Argentina, Canada, Ethiopia, Finland, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain and Switzerland. The Foreign Ministers of these member states last met in person in Berlin in February last year, when they adopted a declaration containing over 20 concrete proposals (or “stepping stones”) in the run‑up to the 50th anniversary of the Non‑Proliferation Treaty’s entry into force.

During his visit to Amman, Foreign Minister Maas will also have a bilateral meeting with his Jordanian colleague, Ayman Safadi.