Monthly Archives: December 2022

PAEC, 2005

This 2005 article has a slew of data about the PAEC. I think this paragraph is a decent summary:

…the PAEC has established most advanced engineering and manufacturing facilities in Pakistan. Its engineering set-ups, coupled with its technological developments, have achieved, progressively, a higher indigenization level and import substitution, and saved the much-needed foreign exchange. The higher level of indigenization has helped in bringing down the local production costs significantly as compared to prevalent international prices.

UNSC Report on ISIL and CBW

It’s been a while, but here’s a November report from the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. It contains new information about ISIL’s “development and use of chemical and biological weapons.”

Chemical weapons:

Evidence suggests that ISIL manufactured and produced chemical rockets and mortars, chemical ammunition for rocket-propelled grenades, chemical warheads and improvised explosive devices. Furthermore, the ISIL programme involved the development, testing, weaponization and deployment of a range of agents, including aluminium phosphide, chlorine, clostridium botulinum, cyanide, nicotine, ricin and thallium sulphate.

A longer excerpt:

First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Late, but not sure many people have read this part of the final document from the MSP.

While the Treaty is a stand-alone legally binding instrument, it builds upon, contributes to and complements a rich and diverse disarmament and non-proliferation architecture. In order to highlight and underscore these complementarities with specific disarmament instruments, particularly the Non-Proliferation Treaty, States parties resolve:


Action 35: To emphasize the complementarity of the Treaty with the existing disarmament and non-proliferation regime at appropriate opportunities, including preparatory meetings and review conferences of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and with relevant multilateral nuclear disarmament-related initiatives and groupings.


Action 36: To appoint an informal facilitator or facilitators to further explore and articulate the possible areas of tangible cooperation between the Treaty and the Non-Proliferation Treaty during the intersessional period, and provide support for the efforts of the informal facilitator or facilitators.


Action 37: To cooperate with other international bodies, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, in order to enhance cooperation, including in the areas of nuclear safeguards and verification. Such cooperation should enhance the complementarity between the Treaty, the Non- Proliferation Treaty and the Test-Ban Treaty.


Action 38: To continue to work together on outreach projects in order to raise awareness, not only among Governments, but also with civil society, academia, parliamentarians and the general public, including youth organizations, so as to highlight the complementarity between the Treaty and the existing disarmament and non-proliferation regime, including nuclear-weapon-free zone treaties.

Israel on CWC, 2022

From a recent statement to the OPCW Conference on State Parties:

Israel actively participated in the negotiations and signed the CWC in 1993, as a sign that it shares the values, norms and goals that the Convention represents and promotes. It is important to note that Israel also acceded to the 1925 Geneva Protocol, adheres to export control regimes, including the Australia Group, and traditionally supports the United Nations General Assembly CWC First Committee resolution. We hope that others in the region who have not done so yet will join the CWC as a testament of their commitment to the norms and values it represents.