Aidan Liddle
UK Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament
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1st August 2022
Geneva, Switzerland
Finally, it’s here. The 10th Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) begins today. National delegations, civil society representatives and the media are converging on New York from around the world for four weeks of intensive negotiations on some of the most sensitive, contentious and important issues for global peace and security. This RevCon […]
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2nd June 2022
Geneva, Switzerland
May was a big month for 2 of the UK disarmament team’s main objectives for this year. On 9 May, the Open Ended Working Group on Space Threats got underway at last, holding the first of its substantive (as opposed to organisational) meetings. It felt like the culmination of a process we began back in […]
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29th March 2022
Geneva, Switzerland
It’s just over a month now since the Russian armed forces launched their unprovoked, premeditated and unjustified invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s attack is an assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and an egregious violation of the United Nations Charter. Its use of indiscriminate force against innocent civilians is barbaric, and amounts to war crimes. […]
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11th January 2022
Geneva, Switzerland
I was going to use this blog post to write about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, which was due to begin in New York on 4 January. Instead, the week before we were due to travel, it became clear that the Omicron situation in New York made it impossible for the UN to host […]
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22nd September 2021
Geneva, Switzerland
Yesterday we wrapped up the Second Review Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). It’s been an unusual meeting, to say the least. We were supposed to gather in Lausanne in November last year. Of course, the pandemic put paid to that; so instead we held ‘part one’ online in November, and postponed the […]
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8th June 2021
Geneva, Switzerland
2021 marches on, and it’s time for another update on the UK’s initiative on reducing space threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviours. Regular readers will be familiar with the story so far. The UK-sponsored resolution of that name (A/RES/75/36) was adopted by the General Assembly in December. Four key ideas underpinned it. […]
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19th March 2021
Geneva, Switzerland
The Government’s Integrated Review (IR) of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy was published on 16 March. Entitled ‘Global Britain in a Competitive Age’, it sets out the Government’s assessment of the geopolitical context and its strategic framework that will guide the UK’s actions on the world stage, as a European country with global interests […]
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26th February 2021
Geneva, Switzerland
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times in my blog now, a big focus for us in the first part of 2021 is following up the UK-sponsored UN General Assembly resolution on reducing space threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviours. I thought I’d use this post to give a flavour of what […]
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14th January 2021
Geneva, Switzerland
For the last couple of Januaries I’ve used this blog to look ahead to the year to come in the Geneva disarmament world. After 2020, I hesitate to be definite in predicting anything… The pandemic is far from over. For at least the first part of 2021, it’ll still be impossible to hold large-scale in-person […]
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10th December 2020
Geneva, Switzerland
Back in August, I posted a blog about the launch of our new initiative on outer space security at the UN General Assembly. Throughout September and into October we were busy consulting UN member states on the text – bilaterally, in small groups, and in consultations open to the whole membership – and making adjustments […]
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