Do Hung Viet, the newly elected president of the Review Conference on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, has warned that the credibility of the NPT regime is at stake.

“This is not just another review conference. Its success and failure will have implications way beyond these halls and way beyond these next five years,” he said.

He explained that “we meet at a time of rising global tensions, disrupted dialogue and eroding trust” and noted that the prospects of a new arms race “are looming over us”.

The prospects of a world without an effectively functioning NPT regime would be one in which regional rivalries increasingly take on nuclear dimensions, where taboos against nuclear use erode further, and where collective security is diminished by the potential spread of nuclear weapons.

“These are not prospects that we want for ourselves or our children,” he stressed, urging the international community to “get to work”.

At a press briefing on Monday afternoon, Mr Viet said, “We are in the most challenging time for the NPT regime itself. At stake is the relevance and credibility of the NPT regime itself.”

When asked about whether he viewed the adoption of a consensus outcome document as a measure of the success of the RevCon, he said, “An outcome document is the ultimate expression of consensus agreement and common voice coming out of the conference. We have seen two previous conferences not agreeing on consensus, which begs the question, why? If this third conference cannot produce an outcome document, it will be sending a deeply troubling message to the international community about the strength of the NPT regime itself.”

Mr Viet added, “I hesitate to say it would be a success without an agreed outcome from this conference.”

The NPT’s objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, advance nuclear and general disarmament, and promote peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It is the only legally binding multilateral treaty committing nuclear‑weapon states to disarmament.

The treaty opened for signatures in 1968 and entered into force in 1970. As of today, 191 nations, including the five nuclear‑weapon states, are members of the NPT.

The RevCon has been held every five years since 1970. In 2020, the conference was postponed due to COVID‑19 and was rescheduled for 2022. The 2015 and 2022 review conferences failed to agree on the substantive part of the final document.