The Italian Presidency of the Conference on Disarmament (20 January-14 February 2025)
After eleven years, Italy presided over the Conference on Disarmament from 20 January to 14 February 2025, under a monthly rotation mechanism among the 65 CD member states. The Italian presidency came at a particularly difficult time for international relations and for the global architecture of disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation.
Despite the not particularly encouraging premises, as early as the third plenary meeting, held on 30 January, it was possible to approve by consensus Decision CD/2443 on the programme of work, the establishment of the Subsidiary Bodies (SBs) and the appointment of their coordinators. Not since 1996 had this been achieved in January during the first Presidency of the year.
The familiar transparency and willingness to dialogue ensured by the Italian Delegation during the negotiations created the conditions for consensus to gradually emerge on the draft decision proposed by Italy.
It was therefore possible, after almost 40 years, to start the work of the subsidiary bodies in January, which will continue throughout the 2025 session. The topics that have been identified as priorities within the individual bodies are, in particular, the following:
– SB1 (Ending the arms race and nuclear disarmament): overview of the current international security environment for a greater understanding of nuclear doctrines and military implications, as well as the possible risks of a nuclear arms race; goals and objectives for nuclear disarmament and update on the process aimed at ending the nuclear arms race (intermediate goal) and nuclear disarmament (ultimate goal); practical measures for nuclear disarmament, including elements on transparency, irreversibility and verifiability; confidence-building measures (CBMs) and nuclear risk reduction and verification of nuclear disarmament; legal framework and other related legal instruments to advance the nuclear disarmament process.
– SB2 (prevention of nuclear war): review of developments concerning the prevention of nuclear war, including practical measures for the non-use of nuclear weapons; proposals on a multilateral instrument to prevent nuclear war, including general, technical and institutional considerations and other related aspects.
– SB3 (prevention of an arms race in outer space): Continuation of the debate related to security threats to space activities and systems; analysis of the existing regulatory and legal framework taking into account the latest available working documents including the Final Report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (GGE-PAROS, 2024), the United Nations Disarmament Commission document (UNDC, 2023) and discussions developed in recent years within the CD itself; existing and possible initiatives on PAROS; further measures to prevent an arms race in space; identification and definition of key terms.
– SB4 (international agreements to secure non-nuclear weapon states against the use or threat of the use of nuclear weapons): continuation of the discussion on existing security assurances; principles for the development and possible elements of effective international agreements to secure non-nuclear weapon states against the use or threat of the use of nuclear weapons.
– SB5 (new types of weapons of mass destruction, radiological weapons, global disarmament programme and transparency in armaments): continuation of the debate on radiological weapons; current and emerging challenges in the field of chemical and biological weapons; transparency in armaments, including nuclear strategies, doctrines and policies; scientific and technological developments related to disarmament and international security.
The agreement promoted by Italy and approved by consensus by all CD member states is an important development to relaunch a body that has been unable to promote new negotiations in recent years due to the cross vetoes of its members. It is also a sign of the vitality of multilateralism, which has been severely tested in recent years by growing global and regional tensions.
The Italian CD Presidency ended on 14 February and passed to Japan, next in alphabetical order according to the aforementioned rotation mechanism on a monthly basis. The work of the subsidiary bodies will continue until the close of the session in September 2025, when they will be called upon to approve their respective reports for subsequent transmission to the plenary.
The Conference on Disarmament: history, role and methods of work
Established in 1979 as a result of the first Special Session on Disarmament of the UN General Assembly (SSOD-I), the Conference on Disarmament (CD) is the first and most important multilateral forum available to the international community for negotiations on disarmament and non-proliferation. It originates from the first multilateral body set up by the UN in this field: the Committee of the Eighteen. This Committee was created in 1962 and consisted of 18 Member Countries under the joint chairmanship of the United States and the Soviet Union. The membership was later expanded to thirty countries and the Committee was renamed “Committee of the Conference on Disarmament” (CCD) in 1969.
Today, the Conference on Disarmament is based in Geneva and consists of 65 Member States and 38 Observer States. It includes the five permanent Members of the Security Council (China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States) and the most militarily advanced States. The Members of the Conference are also representatives of the major geographical groups in the United Nations: 24 States (including Italy) form the Group of Western countries (WEOG); 34 are gathered in the Group of Non-Aligned countries (NAM); and 7 are part of the Group of Eastern-European countries. China is part of a Group of One.
Traditionally, countries that make a request are invited to participate in the proceedings of the CD as observers. According to the established practice, the CD approves a single list of requests from approximately 40 countries at the beginning of each session. In recent years, this practice has occasionally been abandoned. In 2023, the Russian Federation opposed the approval of a single list, proposing that each request be considered individually. In the absence of an agreement, the 2023 session did not see the participation of any observer countries, including 12 EU member states. Most recently, in January 2024, the Russian Federation opposed the participation of all EU and NATO countries not members of the CD who had requested to participate as observers (eleven EU Member States: Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Czech Republic, Slovenia; and three candidates: Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro). Israel and the United States opposed the participation of Palestine, and Türkiye opposed the participation of Cyprus.
Although emanating from the United Nations General Assembly, the Conference on Disarmament operates as an independent body with its own rules of procedure (though funded through the UN budget). Its activities are organized into three sessions per year, with the first session lasting ten weeks and the subsequent two lasting seven weeks each. The Presidency of the Conference rotates monthly among its Member States in alphabetical order. The Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament is appointed by the UN Secretary-General in the person of the Director General of the United Nations Office in Geneva. At the end of each annual session, the Secretary-General of the CD transmits a report on the Conference’s activities to the General Assembly and ensure the implementation of any recommendations.
The Conference on Disarmament’s permanent agenda, commonly known as the “Decalogue,” encompasses a broad range of issues related to disarmament and arms control. Therefore, each year, the CD adopts a more specific agenda that includes the following topics:
- Cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament;
- Prevention of a nuclear war;
- Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS);
- Effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon states against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons (Negative Security Assurances – NSAs);
- New types and systems of weapons of mass destruction, including radiological weapons;
- Comprehensive Program of Disarmament;
- Transparency in armaments.
Historically, the Conference on Disarmament, but especially the bodies that preceded it, has been the venue for the most important negotiations leading to multilateral disarmament agreements concluded by the international community since the post-World War II era. Among these, notable agreements include the Treaty Banning Nuclear Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Underwater (Partial or Limited Test Ban Treaty – PTBT or LTBT); the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Non-Proliferation Treaty – NPT); the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention – BTWC); the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons (Chemical Weapons Convention – CWC); and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), aiming for the total ban on nuclear weapons testing.
Since 1996, the year of the adoption of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), there has not been consensus among the CD members to begin substantive work on the remaining agenda items of the Conference. Divergent views emerged in particular regarding a potential negotiating mandate on a Treaty banning the production of fissile material (Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty – FMCT), especially on the possible scope of a Treaty – whether or not including existing stocks of fissile material – and on the possible means of verification and monitoring.
The purely political deadlock of the Conference has resulted in the inability of its Members to adopt a Programme of Work (POW) for over twenty years, often explained as an effect of the basic rule of procedure “the Conference conducts its work and adopts its decisions by consensus.” During this extended deadlock, however, the Conference has continued to convene in plenary and informal sessions, allowing not only the continuation of dialogue among major players on the global political and military stage but also for the development of a technical expertise on crucial issues pertaining to disarmament and arms control.
Among the more recent attempts to facilitate the “unblocking” of the CD, it is worth noting an informal retreat held in Montreux on 22-23 June 2023, organized by UNIDIR with the joint support of the French and German Presidencies of the CD. Various possible measures were discussed on this occasion, ranging from small practical improvements to important structural reforms. At the end of the retreat, UNIDIR presented a report, which was informally discussed by the CD. The Italian position is reflected in Ambassador Bencini’s statement during the CD debate on 17 August 2023.
The 2024 session closed under the Presidency of Israel with the approval of a report which provides, for the first time in the history of the CD, a form of continuity between the session just concluded and the following one. It was in fact recommended that the reports of the Subsidiary Bodies (SBs) established in the 2024 session can resume their work in 2025 on the basis of the same mandate and with the same coordinators. The 2025 session will open on January 21 under the Presidency of Italy.
The Italian participation in the Conference on Disarmament
Italy last chaired the Conference on Disarmament in 2014 and will chair it again from 1 January to 21 February 2025. In 2024 Italy took part in the P6+2 meetings, a format that informally brings together the six Presidencies of the CD of the current year, plus the last of the previous year and the first of the following one, in addition to the Secretariat (UNODA). This is a practical consultation mechanism that allows us to ensure continuity and coherence in the work of the CD, which suffers to a certain extent from the brevity of each Presidency. The 2024 6+2 Group included Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel and Italy.
In 2025, Italy continues to be part of the 6+2 Group as the first Presidency of the year. Based on the alphabetical rotation of the presidencies that will succeed each other during the year, the other members are: Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia and Mexico, in addition to Israel and Mongolia as the last Presidency of 2024 and the first of 2026 respectively.
Main Statements
2025
Amb. Leonardo Bencini
- Plenary Meeting on Item 2: Prevention of nuclear war practical and political measures. Nuclear Risk Reduction, 18 March
- High Level Segment, 26 February
- Plenary Meeting: Closing statement of the Italian Presidency at the CD, 13 February
- Plenary Meeting: Opening statement of the Italian Presidency at the CD
2024
Amb. Leonardo Bencini
- Plenary Meeting: Thematic Debate on the challenges of new and emerging threats, 11 June
- Plenary Meeting: Thematic Debate on Disarmament and Education, 6 June
- Plenary Meeting: Thematic Debate on Transparency in Armaments, May 30
- Plenary Meeting on Item 1: Cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament, May 28
- Plenary Meeting on Item 6: Comprehensive Programme of Disarmament, May 14
- Plenary Meeting on Item 1: Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and Nuclear Disarmament, March 21
- High-Level Segment, 27 February
- Opening meeting, 25 January
Cons. Eugenio Poti
2023
H.E. Antonio Tajani, Vice President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
- High-Level Segment, 28 February
Amb. Leonardo Bencini
- Plenary Meeting on the CD report 5 September
- Plenary Meeting on a comprehensive programme of disarmament 17 August
- Plenary Meeting on the prevention of a nuclear war 15 June
- Plenary Meeting on disarmament and the gender perspective in the context of the “Women, Peace and Security” agenda 23 May
- Plenary Meeting on nuclear disarmament 16 May
- Plenary Meeting on the prevention of an arms race in outer space 30 March
- Plenary Meeting on nuclear risk reduction 23 March
- Plenary Meeting on negative security assurances 9 February
- Opening meeting 26 January
2022
Amb. Leonardo Bencini
- Plenary Meeting 19 May
Couns. Tancredi Francese
- Meeting on cyber-security 11 August
Documents and Resources
Resolutions and Decisions of the 10th Special Session of the UN General Assembly (1978): Creation of the Conference on Disarmament (1978)
United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs: Conference on Disarmament