Disarmament and international security
The UN Conference on Disarmament
The UN Conference on Disarmament, established in 1979, is the main multilateral negotiating forum for the elaboration of international treaties in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation. The CD has 65 member states, including Belarus (since 1996), Kazakhstan and Russia.
The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva serves as Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and as the personal representative of the UN Secretary-General at the Conference, and provides organizational, documentation and information support for the negotiations at the CD.
The Conference on Disarmament is the successor to the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament (1959–1960), established by the United Kingdom, the USSR, the United States and France; the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament (1962–1969); the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (1969–1978); and the Committee on Disarmament (1979–1983).
Within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament and its predecessors, a number of key international treaties in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation were elaborated: the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
The agenda of the Conference includes the following issues:
• cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament; prevention of nuclear war;
• prevention of an arms race in outer space;
• conclusion of international agreements on assurances to non-nuclear-weapon states against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as on new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons, including radiological weapons;
• a comprehensive programme of disarmament;
• transparency in armaments.
Belarus’s activities within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament are aimed at strengthening its positive international image and positioning our country as a donor of international security and an author of constructive initiatives aimed at reducing global tension, including:
the initiative put forward by the President of the Republic of Belarus A.G. Lukashenko to hold a global dialogue on security involving all leading international actors “in the spirit of San Francisco”;
the initiative of the Head of State to create a “belt of digital good-neighbourliness” with a view to reducing the risks of confrontation in cyberspace;
the initiative to develop a global agreement on the provision by nuclear-weapon states of guarantees to non-nuclear states on the non-use of nuclear weapons and the prevention of the threat of their use;
as well as on the prohibition of the development and production of new types and systems of weapons of mass destruction.
Belarus uses the Conference to convey our country’s current approaches, including at a high level: the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus Maxim Ryzhenkov addressed the Conference on Disarmament on 26 February 2025, and Deputy Minister Igor Sekreta on 23 February 2026.
International mechanisms on disarmament, international security and arms control
Belarus pursues a consistent policy in the field of international security, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, disarmament and arms control.
Belarus consistently advocates the resolution of existing international contradictions by peaceful means, including through the immediate launch of comprehensive multilateral negotiations on international security issues.
Our country is the first state to have voluntarily renounced possession of the nuclear weapons remaining after the collapse of the USSR.
As a non-nuclear-weapon state, Belarus became a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1993. In 1995, Belarus signed a Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and acceded to the conventions under the auspices of the IAEA on the physical protection of nuclear material and on nuclear safety. Belarus completed the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from its territory in 1996.
As a party to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) since 1992, our country withdrew 584 intermediate- and shorter-range missiles from its territory, with their subsequent elimination at test ranges of the former USSR. Belarus ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on 13 May 2000 and advocates its earliest entry into force.
Belarus takes an active part in the work of other specialized forums on disarmament and international security.
Belarus fully shares the humanitarian principles of protecting the civilian population from the effects of specific types of conventional weapons, as well as protecting combatants from suffering that is excessive in relation to the achievement of a legitimate military objective. On this basis, Belarus is a party to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (the Convention on “Inhumane” Weapons/CCW) and to all its Protocols.
In 2018, under the chairmanship of the Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN Office at Geneva Yury Ambrazevich, who was elected vice-chairman, the final report of the 12th Conference of the Parties to Protocol V to the CCW was adopted. In 2020, Belarus served as chair of the 14th Conference of the States Parties to Protocol V to the CCW.
In 2021, the representative of Belarus was elected vice-chairman of Main Committee II of the 6th CCW Review Conference. The active participation of the Belarusian representative in the bureau contributed to the adoption of a consensus final report of the Review Conference.
In recent years, cooperation has been established between the Mine Action Centre of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus and the CCW Secretariat, as well as the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, which facilitates the work of clearing the territory of Belarus of explosive remnants of war.
In September 2003, the Republic of Belarus acceded to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (APMBC). The most important obligation under this convention is the destruction of existing stockpiles. Belarus possessed the world’s seventh-largest arsenal of anti-personnel mines. The complete destruction of the existing stockpiles was finished in 2017. In total, more than 295 thousand TNT-filled mines and more than 3.3 million PFM-1 type mines were destroyed.
Belarus’s participation in APMBC events makes it possible to protect the national interests of the republic in connection with the implementation of the Convention by its states parties. The delegation of the Republic of Belarus took part in the Fifth Review Conference of the Parties to the APMBC, which was held on 25–29 November 2024 in Siem Reap (Cambodia). At the intersessional meetings of the APMBC states parties in June 2026, the Belarusian delegation made a statement on the significant increase in geopolitical and military tension in connection with the withdrawal from the Convention of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland, as well as Ukraine’s attempt to suspend its participation in the APMBC.
Our country is a party to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (BWC). The Republic has adopted the necessary legislative acts for the implementation of the said Convention, and a national contact point for the implementation of the BWC has been established (the Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology).
In 2019, the representative of Belarus was elected chairman of the Meeting of Experts on the review of developments in science and technology related to the BWC.
