Belgium hosts meeting for International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament

Belgium Government is hosting a meeting of the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV) at the Brussels Egmont Palace, the foreign ministry announced Wednesday.

The US Government launched the IPNDV in December 2014 to verify various countries’ nuclear disarmament efforts, which requires increasing the collective capacity of nations to address verification issues.

It comprises more than 25 countries, including Belgium, and considers the complex challenges associated with monitoring and verifying nuclear weapon dismantlement.

Since the peak arsenals of the Cold War, the number of nuclear weapons has decreased tremendously over the past three decades. “Key to these substantial reductions has been the ability of countries to verify each other’s compliance with implementing the treaties,” Foreign Affairs said.

The organisation of this meeting, between 27 and 29 June, is part of Belgium’s commitment to a world without nuclear weapons.

The role of verification in global nuclear disarmament efforts will also be a priority theme for the Belgian delegation at the upcoming review conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, taking place in August in New York.