Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*, Montenegro^*, Albania^*, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Georgia, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Monaco and San Marino align themselves with this declaration.

At the outset, we wish to express our appreciation for your leadership, diplomatic skills and dedicated efforts throughout the last four weeks. We also appreciate the significant work of the NPT Review Conference Bureau members, the secretariat as well as of UNODA and the IAEA.

The European Union has actively contributed to the 10^th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) across the three pillars of the Treaty. We have clearly reaffirmed our support for upholding and fully implementing the Treaty in all its aspects and promoting universalisation.

We regret that despite the commendable efforts by you, Mr. President, all Chairs of Main Committees and Subsidiary Bodies in lengthy negotiations over the past four weeks, it has not been possible to achieve consensus on a final outcome document that would strengthen the NPT. During the past four weeks, we have discussed several proposals that offered the opportunity to make tangible progress in all three pillars of the Treaty. We are very disappointed that the Tenth Review Conference has not been able to seize this opportunity. The EU Member States were prepared to join consensus on your text. Reaching consensus was bound to be difficult given the increasingly challenging security environment marked by increasingly high tensions and serious proliferation crises and challenges as well as Russia’s unacceptable aggression against Ukraine, affecting negatively all three pillars of the NPT.

The NPT’s continued vitality is more than ever important in view of the current security environment. We continue to strongly condemn the unprovoked and unjustified aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which undermines the rules-based international system and our collective security. We are deeply concerned about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) resulting from Russia’s aggression and call on Russia to restore Ukraine’s full control of ZNPP. The EU reiterates its call on Russia to end its aggression immediately and withdraw its troops from the internationally recognised territory of Ukraine.

Nevertheless, legally binding obligations enshrined in the Treaty and commitments from the past Review Conferences will remain valid. The safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency will remain a fundamental component of the nuclear non-proliferation regime. The EU and its Member States will spare no effort to continue to promote the full and effective implementation of the NPT as well as its universalisation and we call upon all NPT members to do the same.

We are looking forward to the next review cycle. It will offer yet another urgent opportunity to achieve the progress that is needed to strengthen the NPT as the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation regime, the essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament in accordance with Article VI of the NPT and an important element in the future development of nuclear energy applications for peaceful purposes.

Thank you, Mr. President.

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.