On October 1-3, 2009 the international high-level workshop on “Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament: Challenges and Priorities for Future International Co-operation”, co-sponsored by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland (FDFA), the PIR Center (Moscow), James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and Carnegie Corporation of New York, took place in a mountain village of Gstaad, Switzerland. The workshop became the 4^th event within the framework of the Gstaad Process initiated in 2006 in accordance with the concept proposed by Dr. Vladimir Orlov and supported by the Swiss FDFA.

Being an informal forum, the Gstaad Process encourages the leading experts in the field of international security, nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament to share their opinions. The participants discussed the major challenges to nonproliferation and disarmament, prospects of signing and ratification of the START replacement Treaty, prospects for entry into force of the CTBT, status and future of the Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty talks; upcoming 2010 NPT Review Conference and ways to make it a success, as well as the regional aspects of nonproliferation and disarmament – Iran, North Korea and Pakistan.

Speaking about Russian-American dialogue, Head of the Russian delegation at the negations on the strategic offensive weapons Anatoly Antonov noted that “While the Russian-American agreements in the strategic sphere are important, it would be wrong to confine the nuclear disarmament problem only to these relations. We hope that at the 2010 NPT Review Conference we will have an open discussion on what additional contribution other nuclear-weapons states can bring to this process. It is important, that already in the immediate prospects they could step-by-step join the efforts of Russia and the United States.”

More than 30 representatives including statesmen and internationally renowned experts from Europe, Russia, the United States took part in the seminar including President of the Ploughshares Fund Joseph Cirincione, Assistant Director at-large of the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the Executive Office of the US President Steven Fetter; Director of the Fondation Recherche Stratégique (Paris) Camille Grand; Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Verification and Compliance of the US Department of State Karin Look, Executive Director of the Peace Research Institute (Frankfurt) Dr. Harald Müller, Head of Political Affairs Secretariat of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud, Director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies William Potter, Head of the Verification and Security Policy Coordination at the IAEA Tariq Rauf and other.

Russian experts included Director of the Department for Security Affairs and Disarmament of the Russian MFA, PIR Center Advisory Board member Anatoly Antonov, Lieutenant-General (ret.), Senior Vice President of PIR Center, former Head of the Department on the Disarmament Problems and WMD Nonproliferation of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) (1991-2000) Gennady Evstafiev, Research Associate of PIR Center Elena Geleskul, PIR Center President Dr. Vladimir Orlov, Head of Strategic Studies Department of the International Security Center of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), PIR Center Advisory Board member Dr. Alexander Savelyev, Chairman of the Commission on Security Policy and Evaluation of Defense Legislation of the Public Board at the Russian Federation Ministry of Defense, PIR Center Advisory Board member Dr. Vitaly Shlykov, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation Mission to the United Nations in Geneva Victor Vasiliev, Deputy Head of the Department of International Cooperation, State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, PIR Center Advisory Board member Aleksey Ubeev.

Materials and publications on disarmament issues can be found on PIR Center's website in the section devoted to “Ways Towards Nuclear Disarmament” Project at http://disarmament.pircenter.org/eng

Materials of the Gstaad Process 2007 can be found on PIR Center's website. More information on Centre russe d'études politiques (CREP) you can find on website http://www.crep.ch/en

For more detailed information on the Gstaad Process 2009, please, contact Elena Geleskul by phone +7 (495) 987-1915, fax +7 (495) 987-1914 or via e-mail: geleskul@pircenter.org