ECFA has participated in the Joint Training Course on Disarmament

On Tue, 3^rd and Wed, 4^th of October 2017, a joint workshop on Disarmament, titled “Towards a NextGen Group of Experts on Security and WMD Issues”, was jointly held by Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA), Egyptian Pugwash Association for Science & International Affairs (Egypt’s National Branch of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs), Arab Institute for Security Studies in Jordan, and US Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). A number of experts, academics and former ambassadors participated in the course, and several students and scholars attended.

In the first day, three sessions were held,   which the following topics were addressed:

(i) Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its Review Conferences;

(ii) Nuclear Export Control Regimes;

(iii) Nuclear Non-Proliferation; and

(iv) Regional and International Instruments. In the second day, three sessions were held, during which these topics were discussed:

(i) Nuclear Security and Nuclear Fuel Cycle (NFC);

(ii) Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT); and

(iii) promotion of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy.

The Work Shop was organized in the wake of the first meeting of Preparatory Committee for the 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference, held in Vienna last June, and the preparations currently underway to hold the second Prepcom  meeting, scheduled to be held in May 2018, in preparation for the convening of 2020 NPT Review Conference.

The most notable development in current nuclear disarmament process, was the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in 2017, as the first legally-binding treaty instrument since the UN was established. The treaty aims at totally eliminating nuclear weapons and of the world from the most dangerous weapons of mass destruction that threaten the human race.

It is noteworthy to note that organizing this joint work shop is part of the attention given by ECFA to the issue of Disarmament and making the Middle Eastern Region safe and free of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Over the years 2014/2015, and within this context, on the 1^st of February 2014, ECFA has organized a joint meeting with the Arab League, titled “Challenges facing Arab States, in particular, issues of terrorism, and the threat posed to the Middle East region by Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons”.

ECFA organized another meeting, in 2015 to discuss the Outcomes of the Conference held in New York in April 2015, titled “Review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty”. In April 2016, ECFA has organized a Joint Conference, on “The Culture of Nuclear Security and Nuclear Non-Proliferation in the Middle East”, together with the Institute for Nuclear Security, within Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA.