13 Practical Steps Toward Nonproliferation

At the 2000 nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, states-parties agreed to take 13 “practical steps” to meet their commitments under Article VI of the NPT:

1. Ratify quickly the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

2. Maintain a nuclear testing moratorium pending entry into force of the CTBT.

3. Begin immediate negotiations in the Conference on Disarmament on a nondiscriminatory, multilateral and verifiable treaty to ban production of some of the ingredients used in making nuclear bombs–-known as fissile material. The negotiations should aim to be concluded within five years.

4. Establish in the Conference on Disarmament a subsidiary body to deal with nuclear disarmament.

5. Apply the principle of irreversibility to all nuclear disarmament and reduction measures.

6. Begin elimination of nuclear arsenals.

7. Ratify and implement quickly START II, conclude START III, and preserve and strengthen the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

8. Complete and implement the Trilateral Initiative between the United States, the Russian Federation, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

9. Begin unilateral nuclear reductions; transparency on weapons capabilities and Article VI-related agreements; reductions in nonstrategic nuclear weapons; measures to reduce the operational status of nuclear weapons; a diminishing role for nuclear weapons in security policies; the engagement of nuclear weapons states in a process leading to complete disarmament.

10. Place excess military fissile materials under IAEA or other international verification and use such material for peaceful purposes.

11. Reaffirm the objective of general and complete disarmament under effective international control.

12. Report regularly in the NPT review process on the implementation of Article VI obligations.

13. Develop verification capabilities necessary to ensuring compliance with nuclear disarmament agreements.