The Swiss government recently issued its Arms Control and Disarmament Strategy 2022–25. There’s a fair amount of interesting material to peruse, but I was stuck by this portion:
Only four states – India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – have obtained nuclear weapons outside of this norm.
From this February interview:
I think the one mistake that was made was that immediately following the terror attack statements were made by senior U.S. government officials that were interpreted as giving India a green light for a retaliatory strike against Pakistan. In the future, U.S. officials need to be extremely careful in their statements following a rise in tensions between India and Pakistan of this nature, given the very dangerous implications of escalation due to the fact both have nuclear weapons capabilities
According to this report for the BWC RevCon, Namibia is considering NSG membership and is linking this effort to potential BWC accession:
On 25 April 2019, an initiative to universalize the BWC was launched by France via its embassy in Windhoek to encourage Namibia to join the BWC. France highlighted the importance of the BWC, the 2019 French Chairmanship, as well as the benefits of joining the Convention. France also expressed its intention to provide technical and judicial assistance for the accession process and the transposition of the law into national law in the event of accession. On 3 May, Namibia informed France that it was considering applying to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and a prerequisite for joining the group would be for Namibia to accede to the BWC, alongside other treaties. For that reason, Namibia is reviewing the possibility of joining the Convention. Furthermore, Namibia was carefully considering the French offer of technical and legal assistance for the accession process.
This 1994 article from the National Security Agency’s Cryptolog contains an interesting morsel of information concerning Iraq’s Scuds. (“He” refers to USAF Colonel Chris Christon):
Sobotka: Why the fuck didn’t you tell me what was in that motherfucking can?
Spiros: Now you wanna know what’s in the cans? Before you wanted to know nothing. Now you ask. Guns, OK? Drugs, whore, vodka, BMWs. Beluga caviar, or bombs, maybe? Bad terrorists with big nuclear bombs. I’m kidding you, Frank, it’s a joke. But you don’t ask … because you don’t wanna know.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Wire
On February 25, the UNSC adopted UNSCR 2622 , which extends “until 30 November 2022 the mandate of the 1540 Committee.”
From the new-ish old Mr. Bungle album:
Sudden death is all we’ll see
Sudden death is you and me
Sudden death is nuclear war
Sudden death is here for sure!
Here it is.
In a January 20 letter to the IAEA, the UAE declared its adherence to the NSG Guidelines:
You can find it here: