OREANDA-NEWS. June 28, 2011. The twenty-first Plenary Meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) took place in Noordwijk in the Netherlands on 23 and 24 June 2011. The meeting was chaired by Ambassador Piet de Klerk of the Netherlands.

The NSG brings together 46 Participating Governments№ with the European Commission and the Chair of the Zangger Committee participating as permanent observers. The Group aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons through the implementation on a national basis of export controls for nuclear and nuclear-related material, “dual use” material, equipment, software and technology, without hindering international cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

On behalf of HE Uri Rosenthal, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the Secretary General of the Ministry made an opening statement. The Secretary General reaffirmed the Netherlands’ support for international efforts to avert the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to combat nuclear terrorism He underlined the importance of effective and transparent controls to nuclear non-proliferation.

The NSG took stock of developments since the last meeting in Christchurch in 2010 and expressed its sorrow at the devastation caused to that city by earthquakes since that time. NSG Participating Governments expressed their sympathy and support for the people of Japan following the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011, which affected several nuclear power plants, in particular those at Fukushima Dai-ichi. Members welcomed international efforts to strengthen nuclear safety worldwide in the light of the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident, including the IAEA Ministerial Conference on nuclear safety, taking place this week in Vienna.

Participating Governments reiterated their firm support for the NPT and emphasised that challenges remain to the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, in particular:

• Participating Governments exchanged information on positive and negative developments in the nuclear non-proliferation regime; they also focused on specific regions and countries of concern.

• Within the framework of the NSG's mandate, concerns were shared about the proliferation implications of the nuclear programmes of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Iran. The NSG reiterated its long-standing support for diplomatic efforts for a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue and for a solution to the DPRK nuclear issue in a peaceful manner.

The NSG noted the need to address proliferation concerns without hampering legitimate trade and reaffirmed the importance of licensing and enforcement based on NSG guidelines and control lists.

The NSG therefore:

• agreed to strengthen its guidelines on the transfer of sensitive enrichment and reprocessing technologies;

• consistent with the terms of the 2006 Brasilia Plenary decision, reviewed the status of adherence to the Additional Protocol.

• emphasised the importance of keeping its lists up to date with technological developments and took stock of the work done for a fundamental review of the trigger and dual use lists;

• discussed a report on the NSG's outreach programme and decided to work on guidance for such outreach;

• continued to consider all aspects of the implementation of the 2008 Statement on Civil Nuclear Cooperation with India and discussed the NSG relationship with India;

• discussed brokering and transit issues and agreed to consider options how to best reflect these matters in the guidelines of the NSG. The Group called on all states to exercise vigilance and make best efforts to ensure that none of their exports of goods or technologies contribute to nuclear weapons programmes.

The Group welcomed the offer of the United States to host the next meeting of the NSG Plenary in June 2012.