Left to right, NSOI coordinator Michael Stafford, Brent Eastman, and Pieter Ott.

Global Initiative Technical Workshop on Anti-Nuclear Smuggling Assistance
London, 5-6 September 2007

The United Kingdom and the U.S. Nuclear Smuggling Outreach Initiative (NSOI) co-hosted a Technical Workshop on Anti-Nuclear Smuggling Assistance in London September 5-6 as part of the 2007 plan of work for the Global Initiative to Combat WMD Terrorism.  Representatives from twenty countries, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), European Union (EU), and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) attended.  The purpose of the workshop was to seek and coordinate international donor assistance to combat nuclear smuggling, particularly in the five countries that the U.S. government has engaged thus far through NSOI.  These countries, all of which were represented at the conference, are Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan.

A representative of each of the engaged countries made a presentation at the conference on the steps his or her government had taken or was planning to take to improve its anti-smuggling capabilities.  All five presentations documented extensive efforts, indicating that potential donors to these countries are being asked to help only those who are doing what they can to improve themselves.

NSOI team members made presentations on the process and results of NSOI’s engagement with these countries, and they described in detail the key priority assistance projects in the countries that still need donor support.

Representatives from NSOI, Canada, the IAEA, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime described the various mechanisms that donors can use to provide assistance to these projects.  These include channeling assistance through the U.S. Department of Energy’s existing implementing agreements with the recipient governments (known as “piggybacking”); providing assistance through the IAEA Nuclear Security Fund; for European Union members, channeling it through EU or European Commission assistance programs; or through bilateral agreements between the donor and recipient governments.  The Canadian representative emphasized her government’s excellent experience with the piggybacking approach, which has the advantage of saving the extensive time and effort that is often necessary for a donor government to negotiate a bilateral implementing agreement of its own with the recipient government.

Several representatives, including those from the U.S. Department of Energy, Canada, the UK, the EU, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, Norway, and New Zealand, made presentations on their governments’ programs of assistance to combat nuclear smuggling.  These presentations included both ongoing assistance efforts as well as plans and parameters for future aid.

In the course of the proceedings, several representatives indicated their governments’ intention to sponsor NSOI-developed projects.  The representative of Norway announced that his government would support up-to-three projects in Kazakhstan.  The UK representative announced his government’s intention to add a project in Tajikistan to the one it is already sponsoring in Ukraine.  The UNODC representative agreed to support projects in Ukraine and Tajikistan.  The representatives from the Netherlands and South Korea indicated their governments’ intention to fund one or more projects, with details to be provided soon.

In sum, the conference provided an excellent opportunity for information sharing among donor states and organizations, and between donors and recipient states.  It also produced significant progress in identifying sponsors for priority assistance projects in the NSOI-engaged states.

Countries/Organizations Participating: Australia, Canada, Denmark, European Union, France, Georgia, Germany, International Atomic Energy Agency, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Tajikistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, United States