This briefing is the result of a detailed study into the attitudes of States without nuclear weapons to the modernisation programmes of the States that possess nuclear weapons. This briefing compiles all the official statements on the subject in Review Conferences and Preparatory Committees for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) since 2015, and in the Open Ended Working Group and negotiations for the Treaty for the Prohibiton of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which came into force in January 2021.
The study shows a consistently high level of concern about the issue from non-nuclear weapon states, and that nuclear-weapon states have also voiced concern about each others’ modernisation programmes. A total of 172 of the 193 UN member states have been party to individual or group statements that treated the issue as a problem.