The fifth Ministerial Meeting of the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament will be held on Tuesday 14 December. Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde will chair the meeting together with Germany’s Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who will come to Stockholm for the first time in her new role.
“The risk of nuclear weapons being used is greater than it has been for a long time, and nuclear disarmament is a prerequisite for safeguarding humankind and our common security,” says Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde.
The Ministerial Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament, which will be held in hybrid format, is an important opportunity for Ms Linde and her colleagues from Argentina, Canada, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, South Korea and Switzerland to stress the importance of nuclear disarmament and to discuss the latest developments in the area. The countries participating in the Ministerial Meeting are all part of the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament.
“The Stockholm Initiative plays an important role in putting pressure on nuclear-weapon states to take steps towards disarmament and proposing constructive ways forward. It is particularly important that progress can be made in connection with the upcoming Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which is the most important framework for disarmament and non-proliferation,” says Ms Linde.
Launched by the Swedish Government in 2019, the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament gathers sixteen countries from different parts of the world. Thus far, some 20 additional countries have backed the Stockholm Initiative’s proposals to promote disarmament and to reduce the risk of nuclear weapons being used.
The ambition is that the ministers at the meeting can reaffirm their strong commitment and agree on joint initiatives in the coming weeks.
The media will be welcomed to a press conference with Ms Linde, Ms Baerbock and Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt on Tuesday 14 December at 16.15.
Additional information on the Stockholm Initiative for Nuclear Disarmament is available here.
