The 2026 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference: what should we expect and what should the UK’s priorities be?
GUEST SPEAKERS:
Dr Alice Spilman, Policy Fellow, BASIC
Dr Hassan Elbahtimy, Senior Lecturer, Department of War Studies, King’s College London
Tuesday, 24 March 2026, House of Commons
PATRONS: FABIAN HAMILTON MP, RICHARD FOORD MP, RT HON SIR JULIAN LEWIS MP, BARONESS SUSAN MILLER, BARONESS CHRISTINE BLOWER, BARONESS NATALIE BENNETT
Email: Tim Street, office@britishpugwash.org to express an interest in attending this event
Key questions
- The 2026 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference (RevCon) takes place between 27 April-22 May. What should the UK’s priorities be going into the RevCon?
- What recent international political-military developments will influence the outcome of the RevCon? For example, how does the expiry of New START—and the wars in Ukraine and Iran— impact upon global non-proliferation efforts?
- What could the UK do to respond to rising challenges to non-proliferation, support the aims of the NPT, reinforce the nuclear taboo, and make progress towards a global No First Use agreement?
The UK’s priorities at the 2026 NPT Review Conference
Concerning what the UK’s priorities are likely to be for the 2026 NPT RevCon, the Government have outlined their position in recent outputs. In these papers, one of the key points that is often raised is transparency (and accountability), and the UK’s enthusiasm for it. For example, David Riley (UK Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament) said in 2024 that “The UK will continue to focus on transparency as a priority. We publish the UK’s overall warhead stockpile limit.”
Notably, in the 2021 Integrated Review the Government had decided that: “Given the changing security and technological environment, we will extend this long-standing policy of deliberate ambiguity and no longer give public figures for our operational stockpile, deployed warhead or deployed missile numbers.” This was on top of the decision in the 2021 IR to raise the UK’s warhead stockpile cap by over 40% (from 180 to 260).
The 2025 Strategic Defence Review emphasised that it was “imperative” that the UK continues to provide “leadership within the NPT.” To achieve this, it was argued, a “strong NATO nuclear mission” is “essential,” because this is “one of the most significant non‑proliferation tools available to assure Allies that they do not need nuclear weapons of their own”.
For more information on options for transparency concerning the UK’s nuclear weapons, see the paper which British Pugwash and the Nuclear Education Trust submitted in 2025 to the Chair of the Defence Select Committee on the ‘Compelling case for Parliament to Scrutinise the UK’s Defence Nuclear Enterprise’. This blog also has some updated information on this topic. The Nuclear Education Trust’s recently published report Stepping Back from the Brink discusses the UK’s decision to join NATO’s nuclear sharing mission; and options for nuclear arms control and disarmament involving the UK and the other nuclear powers.
Background Reading: The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Arms Control and the UK
- Official UN / national documents on the 2026 NPT Review Conference
United Nations, RevCon programme and logistics
Reaching Critical Will, national statements; working papers; other key documents
- Recent outputs from the UK on the NPT
UK National Report for the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; See also the FCDO written statement to the House of Commons
Draft UK National Report Pursuant to Actions 20 and 21 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) 2010 Review Conference Final Document
Second Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons: UK statement on Pillar 1
UK National Report pursuant to Actions 5, 20 and 21 of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review Conference 2010 for the 10th NPT Review Conference
- Recent UK Parliament publications
House of Commons Library, Nuclear weapons: At a glance (January 2026)
House of Lords, Rising Nuclear Risk: disarmament and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (April 2019)
- Civil society and academic analysis and commentary
Hassan Elbahtimy, Fiker Institute, The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime: Origins, Evolution & Challenges (December 2025)
Alice Spilman, Chiara Cervasio, Eva-Nour Repussard, and Mhairi McClafferty, BASIC, The Nuclear Responsibilities Primer: Exploring Perspectives on Nuclear Responsibilities within the Non-Proliferation Regime (December 2024)
Heather Williams, King’s College London, The nuclear order and emerging technologies (February 2024)
European Leadership Network, Pragmatic Steps to reinforce the NPT on the way towards the 2026 Review Conference (December 2023)
Arms Control Association, Joint Statement from High-Ranking Former Officials and Nuclear Experts Across the Globe on Expiration of New START (February 2026)
Lauren Muir, United Nations Association-UK, The end of the New START Treaty (February 2026)