On its 50th Birthday Lords to ask whether Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is still fit for purpose
The House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee will this week take evidence from senior Ministry of Defence and Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials as well as leading academic experts ahead of this year's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference.
The NPT, which reaches its 50th anniversary this year, is reviewed every five years and the next Review Conference will be held at the UN in New York from 27 April – 22 May. The review comes as the NPT is under pressure due rising geopolitical tensions, stalled disarmament and recent threats from Iran to withdraw from it. The Committee's evidence sessions this week will follow-up its 2019 report Rising nuclear risk, disarmament and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which found that the level of nuclear risk had risen in recent years.
The Committee will take evidence on the NPT from 10:40am on Wednesday 26 February in Committee Room 4 of the House of Lords. Giving evidence to the Committee will be:
10:40am
- Samantha Job, Director, Defence and International Security, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Sarah Price, Head, Counter Proliferation and Arms Control Centre
- James Franklin, Nuclear Policy Deputy Director, Defence Nuclear Organisation, Ministry of Defence
11:40am
- Dr Heather Williams, Lecturer in Defence Studies, King's College London
- Marion Messmer, Co-Director, BASIC
Questions the sessions will cover include:
- The result and impact of the recent meetings on nuclear proliferation in London of the P5 States.
- The possible impact of Iran withdrawing from the NPT on efforts to deliver global nuclear disarmament
- The Government's assessment of the UN Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction.