13 Steps disarmament

The 13 Steps (sometimes called the "Thirteen Practical Steps") are a sequence of disarmament commitments adopted by consensus in the Final Document of the 2000 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). They were designed to give concrete content to the vague Article VI obligation that NPT parties pursue negotiations on nuclear disarmament in good faith.

Key elements of the 13 Steps include:

• Early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and a moratorium on testing in the meantime.
• Negotiation in the Conference on Disarmament of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) within five years.
• Establishment of a subsidiary body in the CD to deal with nuclear disarmament.
• Application of the principle of irreversibility to disarmament measures.
• An "unequivocal undertaking" by the nuclear-weapon states to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals.
• Further reductions of non-strategic nuclear weapons and increased transparency.
• Diminishing the role of nuclear weapons in security policies and reducing the operational status of nuclear forces (often discussed in terms of de-alerting).
• Engagement of all NWS in a process leading to total elimination.
• Reaffirmation of the ABM Treaty as a cornerstone of strategic stability (a step that lost force after the U.S. withdrawal in 2002).

The 13 Steps are widely cited by non-nuclear-weapon states, particularly the New Agenda Coalition (Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden), as a benchmark against which to measure nuclear-weapon state performance. Implementation has been uneven: the CTBT has not entered into force, FMCT negotiations remain stalled, and several commitments were effectively superseded by the 64-point action plan adopted at the 2010 NPT Review Conference. Despite limited progress, the 13 Steps remain a politically binding reference point in NPT diplomacy.