Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) - Verification Issues

The High Level Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty’s (FMCT) Expert Preparatory Group held an open-ended informal consultative meeting at the United Nations in New York on 2-3 March 2017. The purpose of the meeting was to engage all UN Member States to share their views through interactive discussions on the scope of a future treaty, its definitions, verification requirements, and associated legal and institutional arrangements. As the FMCT is still at the stage of a proposed agreement, the purpose of the consultative meeting is not to negotiate the Treaty but prepare the terrain on future negotiations. The Group, which submits its report to the UN General Assembly in 2018, draws from the Governmental Experts Group (GGE) Report of 2015, further details issues, and looks at various options, inter alia, on the definitions, scope, verification alternatives, and their implications. The GGE participants agree that the future FMCT needs to be internationally and effectively verifiable, and is an important step in nuclear disarmament. The GGE identified a number of key issues related to verification, which are being summarized in this presentation.