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Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, Montenegro* and Albania*, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this statement.

The EU reaffirms its strong support for the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) which must be preserved in its integrity. The NPT is the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime, the essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament in accordance with Article VI of the NPT and an important element in the further development of nuclear energy applications for peaceful purposes.

Our priority during the ongoing NPT review cycle is to uphold and preserve the NPT as a key multilateral instrument for reinforcing international peace, security and stability. We call upon States that have not yet done so to join the Treaty as non-nuclear weapon States and we call upon all States Parties to implement the Treaty obligations and the commitments undertaken during the previous Review Conferences.

We reiterate the EU’s strong support for all three pillars of the NPT and continue to call for the comprehensive, balanced and full implementation of the 2010 Review Conference Action Plan. Its concrete, equally important and mutually reinforcing steps on nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy remain valid and provide a mutually acceptable basis to advance towards the ultimate objective of a world without nuclear weapons.

We recall that all States Parties have committed to pursuing policies that are fully compatible with the Treaty and the objective of achieving a world without nuclear weapons. All States Parties have also committed to applying the principles of irreversibility, verifiability and transparency in relation to the implementation of their Treaty obligations.

The EU contributes actively to global efforts to seek a safer world for all and to create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons, in accordance with the goals of the NPT, in a way that promotes international stability, and based on the principle of undiminished security for all. In this context, we call for further progress on all aspects of disarmament to enhance global security. While we are all concerned by the current security conditions, we nevertheless believe that there is room for further progress in the area of arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation.

EU Member States remain committed to the pursuit of nuclear disarmament, in accordance with Article VI of the NPT. We stress the need for concrete progress towards the full implementation of Article VI, especially through the overall reduction in the global stockpile of nuclear weapons, taking into account the special responsibility of the States that possess the largest nuclear arsenals.

We call on the Russian Federation to address serious concerns regarding its compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in a substantial and transparent way. We ask the United States and the Russian Federation to remain engaged in active dialogue to preserve the INF Treaty and ensure its full and verifiable implementation which is crucial for Europe’s and other regions’ security.

While noting the announcements by the parties that they have met the central limits of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) by 5 February 2018, we encourage the United States and the Russian Federation to extend this Treaty and seek further reductions to their arsenals, including strategic and non-strategic, deployed and non-deployed nuclear weapons. In particular, the EU encourages the United States and the Russian Federation to include non-strategic nuclear weapons into arms control and nuclear disarmament processes, pursue further discussions on confidence-building, transparency, verification activities, and reporting, and to reduce the operational readiness of their nuclear weapons systems to the minimum level necessary. Given the current severe security environment, we encourage all States concerned to take appropriate practical risk reduction measures, as outlined in the 2010 NPT Review Conference Action Plan, which are important to also ensure the safety and security of their nuclear arsenals.

We deeply regret the fact that the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is not yet in force. We reiterate our call on all States that have not yet done so, in particular those listed in Annex II, namely China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and the United States, to sign and ratify the CTBT without any preconditions and further delay. In the meantime, we call on all States to abide by a moratorium on nuclear weapon test explosions or any other nuclear explosion, and to refrain from any action that would defeat the object and purpose of the Treaty. All EU Member States have ratified the CTBT and are abiding by its obligations. We welcome the latest ratification by Thailand, increasing the number of ratifications to 167 States. On 26 February 2018, a new EU Council Decision was adopted, worth more than EUR 4.5 million, in order to continue the EU’s longstanding support for the strengthening of the CTBTO’s monitoring and verification capabilities. We reiterate our full confidence in the CTBT's verification regime, which has demonstrated its ability to provide independent and reliable data that will help to deter non-compliance with the Treaty once it enters into force, and respond to threats to international peace and security.

The EU remains united and committed to verifiable treaty-based nuclear disarmament and arms control and stresses the need to renew multilateral efforts and revitalize multilateral negotiating bodies, in particular the Conference on Disarmament (CD). We are grateful for the five subsidiary body coordinators for their hard work and leadership in bringing forward substantive work, in accordance with the agreed mandate of the subsidiary bodies, to reach an understanding on the areas of commonalities, deepen technical discussions and broaden areas of agreement and consider effective measures, including legal instruments for negotiations. The adoption of four substantive reports for the first time in years is an important step forward and could provide a solid basis to build on in 2019.

In the CD, our longstanding priority is to immediately commence negotiations of a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices (FMCT), on the basis of document CD/1299 and the mandate contained therein. We commend Canada for bringing the work of the High Level FMCT Expert Preparatory Group into a consensual outcome and welcome the inclusive consultative process set up General Assembly Resolution 71/259 to take into account the views of the broader UN membership. The EU is providing significant financial support to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) to facilitate the participation of African, Asian, Latin American and Caribbean countries in FMCT related consultations and other activities. The EU calls on all CD members to start negotiations on a FMCT without delay and to begin work on the other issues on the agenda. In the meantime, we call on all States possessing nuclear weapons that have not yet done so to declare and uphold an immediate moratorium on their production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. We welcome the action by the two European nuclear weapon States, which have declared relevant moratoria and dismantled or converted such facilities, and call on others to follow suit.

The EU welcomes the ongoing work of the Group of Governmental Experts on nuclear disarmament verification and looks forward to further progress also in other fora, including the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV). While verification is not an end in itself, further development of the multilateral nuclear disarmament verification capabilities would assist in the achievement and maintenance of a world without nuclear weapons. The relevant capabilities should be further developed to ensure their availability for future disarmament measures.

With regard to negative security assurances, the 2010 NPT Review Conference stated that the Conference on Disarmament should immediately begin discussion with a view to elaborating recommendations on all aspects of the issue, without excluding an internationally legally binding instrument. The EU recognizes the legitimate interest of non-nuclear weapon States in receiving unequivocal security assurances from nuclear weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons as part of binding and agreed security arrangements. The EU calls on all nuclear weapon States to reaffirm existing security assurances noted by UN Security Council Resolution 984 (1995) and recalled in UN Security Council Resolution 1887 (2009) and Resolution 2310 (2016). Negative security assurances can be an important confidence building measure which strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation regime, contribute to nuclear disarmament and enhance regional and global security, in line with the goals and objectives of the NPT.

The EU recalls that Russia has specifically committed to refraining from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or sovereignty of Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 on security assurances, in connection with Ukraine's accession to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon State. We call upon Russia to honour and fulfil this commitment.

We acknowledge the importance of nuclear weapon free zones for peace and security, in accordance with Article VII of the NPT. Such zones should be established on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at among the States of the region concerned, as outlined in the 1999 Guidelines of the UN Disarmament Commission (UNDC). The EU recognizes that treaty-based security assurances are available to nuclear weapon free zones which already comprise more than 100 States. We encourage all nuclear weapon States to sign and ratify the relevant protocols to the Treaties establishing nuclear weapon free zones, drawn up following the requisite consultations. We also call on those States in existing nuclear weapon free zones that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the relevant NWFZ treaties.

The EU reaffirms its full support for the establishment of a zone free of nuclear and all other weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems in the Middle East. We consider the 1995 NPT Resolution valid until its goals and objectives are achieved and strongly support the outcome of the 2010 NPT Review Conference on the Middle East. We deeply regret that it has not been possible so far to convene a Conference on the establishment of such a zone, as outlined in the 2010 NPT Review Conference Action Plan. We maintain the view that dialogue and building confidence among all stakeholders is the only sustainable way towards a meaningful conference to be attended by all States of the Middle East on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at by them. The EU calls on all States in the region to urgently and proactively engage with the Co-Conveners and each other with the aim of enabling the Conference to be convened as soon as possible, on the basis of arrangements freely arrived at between all States of the region. The EU has continuously expressed its readiness to assist in the process and organised a seminar in 2011 and in 2012 as well as a capacity-building workshop in 2014 to help produce a conducive atmosphere and move the process forward. We continue to call on all States in the region, which have not yet done so, to join the NPT, the CTBT, the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. This would be an important confidence- and security-building measure and could constitute tangible steps towards the establishment of a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems in the Middle East.

The EU notes the severe consequences associated with nuclear weapons use and emphasizes that all States share the responsibility to prevent such an occurrence from happening.

We underline that all proliferation crises must be addressed in a resolute way. The ongoing diplomatic efforts with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are a positive development that contributes to easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. The EU urges the DPRK to engage seriously in the follow-on negotiations and embark on a credible path towards a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation and the abandonment of its other WMD programmes. Until the DPRK does take concrete steps towards denuclearisation, we will continue to strictly enforce existing sanctions and call upon all States to do the same. We call upon the DPRK to maintain its declared suspension of testing of nuclear weapons and to extend its declared halt of ICBM tests to all kinds of ballistic missile launches and to comply with its obligations under multiple UN Security Council Resolutions, including returning to compliance with the NPT and to IAEA Safeguards at an early date. We urge the DPRK to sign and ratify the CTBT without further delay, giving legal effect to the DPRK's announcement to suspend nuclear tests and its stated interest "to join the international desire and efforts for the total halt to the nuclear test".

We recall that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), negotiated with regard to the Iranian nuclear programme, is a key element of the global non-proliferation architecture and a significant achievement of multilateral diplomacy, endorsed by the UN Security Council through Resolution 2231. In this context, the EU deeply regrets the withdrawal of the US from the JCPOA. As confirmed by twelve consecutive reports issued by the IAEA and most recently in its report of 30 August 2018, Iran has continued to implement its nuclear related commitments, and it must continue to do so. Alongside implementation by Iran of its nuclear related commitments, the lifting of sanctions constitutes an essential part of the JCPOA. Work is underway towards a legal entity to allow European companies to continue their legitimate trade with Iran in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2231. We call upon Iran to play a constructive role in the region and not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology, which are inconsistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2231, and cease arms transfers, which are prohibited under UN Security Council Resolutions, including 2216.

EU Member States will elaborate further in their national statements on their positions as regards nuclear disarmament.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman