THE NUCLEAR SUPPLIERS GROUP: A MULTILATERAL ARRANGEMENT DEVOTED TO SUPPLIER COORDINATION

When the then-26 adherents to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) Guidelines met for the first time in more than 13 years in The Hague in April 1991 it began a new and dynamic process for coordinating the full range of nuclear supplier issues. In less than four years the NSG has expanded its membership to 31 countries and has implemented major changes to its Guidelines and commodity control lists. The NSG meets annually in a Plenary session, twice a year for the Dual-Use Consultations, and as necessary in working group sessions. A person nominated by the host country for the Plenary meeting assumes the chair at the beginning session and for the period until the opening session of the next annual Plenary. Subscribing Governments to the Dual-Use Arrangement, on a calendar year rotational basis, provide a chair for the Dual-Use Consultations. The Government of Japan through its Permanent Mission to International Organizations in Vienna is the official Point of Contact, or Secretariat for the NSG. Enhancements to the Regime agreed to by the Group since its reinvigoration include the adoption of controls on nuclear-related dualuse equipment, materials and technology; the requirement for a recipient country to have an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency calling for safeguards on its entire nuclear program, both now and in the future; a major expansion of the Trigger List (the list of commodities which \"trigger\" safeguards as a condition of supply) to clarify and add detail to the controlled commodities; comparable controls on technologies associated with Trigger List items; and \"fixes\" to the Guidelines to control retransfers and exports to countries with suspect nonproliferation credentials. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the NSG and discusses in detail the past, present and future work of the Group.