Disarmament in Review
Representatives of relevant ministries and agencies of the Governments of Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan responsible for implementing UN Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) on preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to non-State actors, held a peer review meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, from 2 to 4 August 2017. The purpose of the meeting was to share experiences and update on progress achieved in implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1540 in those three States.
The meeting was hosted by the Government of Tajikistan and organized by the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific (UNRPCD), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) with the support from the 1540 Committee and its Group of Experts. The meeting formed part of the joint United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA)-OSCE project “Facilitating the Regional Implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1540 (2004)” and served as a follow-up to a previous round of consultations held in August 2016 in Minsk, Belarus.
Over the course of three-days the participants shared their respective national approaches to the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1540 (2004), including on policy and legislative framework development, enforcement procedures and effective practices as set out in their voluntary national implementation action plans . In particular, the delegations extensively discussed biological/chemical security and export-control, including national control lists, licensing, border control, and commodity identification, which are a priority for their Governments. The delegations also had a chance to visit Tajik identification centres of nuclear, radioactive, chemical and biological materials, as well as one of the border crossing points. At the end of the meeting, the delegations prepared a final report and recommendations, which will be presented to the 1540 Committee.
Representatives from Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan outlined a number of issues that require further cooperation in this trilateral format with support from UNODA and the OSCE. These include further exchange of effective practices to develop legislative documents, and training of personnel on export controls, detection and identification of nuclear, radioactive, chemical and biological materials. The representatives therefore agreed to convene a new round of peer review in 2018, in Kyrgyzstan and invite other Central Asian States to the meeting.
The trilateral mechanism, which was established by the three States following a recommendation of the 1540 Committee, has contributed significantly to strengthening their cooperation on issues related to UN Security Council resolution 1540 (2004). The peer review further contributed to the development and implementation of voluntary national implementation action plans in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and has served as an effective tool to promote and enhance the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) at the national and regional level.
