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Event | 25 August 2026

Three Strikes and We’re Out? What’s Next for the NPT Review Process

NPT Diplomacy Middle East NPT Nuclear Disarmament Nuclear Weapons Multilateral Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation ELN

In this ELN webinar, “Three Strikes and We’re Out? What’s Next for the NPT Review Process” Ambassador Đỗ Hùng Việt, Vietnam’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York, and President of the 2026 NPT Review Conference (RevCon), joins Oliver Meier, Head of ELN’s Nuclear and Multilateral Disarmament Programme, for a candid first-hand account of what happened in New York, before turning to audience questions moderated by ELN Policy Fellow Jana Baldus.

The 2026 Review Conference concluded on 22 May without a consensus outcome document: the third RevCon in a row to end this way. In this conversation, Ambassador Việt reflects on what the conference achieved despite that outcome, why consensus proved elusive, and what it means for the NPT’s future.

Together, they discuss:

  • What was achieved over four weeks of negotiations, even without a final agreement
  • The fault lines that broke consensus, from disarmament commitments and extended deterrence to the regional dispute over Iran
  • Why nuclear risk has faded from public urgency, and what that means for pressure on nuclear-armed states
  • What the RevCon’s outcome could mean for the first TPNW Review Conference this November-December

Watch in full:

This webinar took place on 25 August 2026 as part of ELN’s Protecting the Non-Proliferation Treaty project, supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Listen to our companion podcast episode, featuring Ambassador Alexander Kmentt, Thomas Countryman, and UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu here.

The European Leadership Network itself as an institution holds no formal policy positions. The opinions articulated above represent the views of the speakers rather than the European Leadership Network or its members. The ELN aims to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time, to further its charitable purposes.

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