Geneva 15 April 2026 – Government officials representing more than 20 nuclear-weapon-free nations in Asia and the Pacific will meet in Jakarta on Friday, 17 April 2026, to discuss the urgent need to eliminate nuclear weapons.
The one-day conference will be funded by Austria and co-hosted with Indonesia, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Discussions will focus on the universalisation and implementation of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and the threat facing all countries from nuclear weapons. (ref. https://disarmament.unoda.org/en/our-work/weapons-mass-destruction/nuclear-weapons/treaty-prohibition-nuclear-weapons )
Indonesia served as a vice-president of the Bureau of the President of the negotiations during the General Assembly talks leading to the adoption of the TPNW in 2017 and ratified the TPNW in 2024. Austria chaired the first meeting of TPNW States Parties in 2022 in Vienna, coordinated the TPNW’s Security Concerns process and currently serves as a co-chair of its informal working group on universalisation.
The purpose of the conference is to take stock of the work achieved under the TPNW and advance the process of further states joining it, as well as raise awareness about the humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.
Countries attending will include states parties and signatories to the TPNW, as well as those that have yet to sign the treaty.
H.E. Tri Tharyat, Director-General of Multilateral Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, said: “This Conference comes at a critical moment. With the Eleventh NPT Review Conference approaching and the First TPNW Review Conference later this year, the Conference can help shape both processes in a meaningful way.”
DG Tharyat continued: “The reality we face is clear. Nuclear risks are rising, driven by heightened geopolitical tensions and the continued reliance on nuclear deterrence. For the Asia-Pacific, this is not a distant concern. It is a direct and growing security challenge. The TPNW offers a principled response. It reinforces the global disarmament architecture, complements the NPT, and places humanitarian considerations at the center of security thinking. It also challenges us to rethink the role of nuclear weapons in ensuring security. “
Ambassador George-Wilhelm Gallhofer, Director of Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-proliferation at the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of Austria, said: “In the current geopolitical climate with a renewed focus on nuclear deterrence and rearmament, the risk of nuclear weapon use is as high as it has ever been. Any such detonation – whether intentionally, by accident or inadvertently – would have catastrophic and far-reaching humanitarian and environmental consequences. The Pacific region has and continues to bear the consequences of large-scale nuclear testing. The only effective measure to eliminate the risk stemming from nuclear weapons is abolition. Five years ago, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force. Since then, it has reinforced the legal and normative taboo against the possession and use of nuclear weapons and given the majority of non-nuclear-armed states a united voice. The Treaty demonstrates that multilateral diplomacy can deliver and that we can make real progress towards a world without nuclear weapons through cross-regional cooperation.”
Ambassador Gallhofer continued: “I am therefore grateful for the in-depth discussions at the “Asia-Pacific regional conference on the TPNW and the security concerns related to nuclear weapons” in Jakarta with participants from 20 states. The Asia-Pacific and Central Asian regions brought their unique and important experience and perspectives to further our joint work towards a world free of nuclear weapons.”
Martin De Boer, the Head of the ICRC’s Regional Delegation in Jakarta, welcomed the meeting: “Nuclear disarmament is more than ever an urgent imperative. It is also a humanitarian duty and shared responsibility of the international community. The indiscriminate, disproportionate and long-lasting destructive power of nuclear weapons makes the use of these weapons’ incompatible with International Humanitarian Law. Simply put, the use of nuclear weapons cannot comply with the laws of war. The humanitarian impact of the use of nuclear weapons would indeed create a public health emergency of catastrophic, unimaginable and unprecedented proportions. We must not only remember the past but learn from it and take urgent action to prevent the unspeakable from happening again. The ICRC strongly encourages all States that have not yet done so to ratify or adhere to the TPNW without delay.”
ICAN’s Director of Government Relations and Advocacy, Céline Nehory, said that the Jakarta conference would help to solidify regional support for the TPNW at a crucial moment: “Building support for the treaty is more urgent than ever given the perilous state of the world, and the continued existence of more than 12,000 nuclear weapons in the hands of the nine nuclear-armed countries”.
Five of the world’s nine nuclear-armed nations are in Asia: China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. Most nations in Asia and the Pacific, however, are strongly opposed to nuclear weapons, having joined the TPNW and treaties that establish nuclear-weapon-free zones in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the South Pacific.
In February, Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, warned that a war involving the use of nuclear weapons would have devastating, widespread consequences, including for nations with no direct involvement. He highlighted the potential for “nuclear winter” – a period of prolonged darkness, resulting in global agricultural collapse and famine – if a large number of nuclear weapons were used.
Background to the TPNW
The TPNW was adopted by 122 countries at the UN in 2017 and came into force five years ago, in January 2021. It now has the support of 140 states in the UN General Assembly and more than half of the world’s states (99) have already signed, ratified or acceded to the treaty.
The states parties to the treaty held their first meeting in Vienna in 2022, where they issued a landmark multilateral condemnation of nuclear threats that are specifically banned by the treaty, and they also agreed upon the Vienna Action Plan to implement the treaty. In 2023 and 2025, the states met again in New York and among the measures they agreed was to call out nuclear deterrence doctrine as a threat to human security and an obstacle to nuclear disarmament. (ref. https://www.icanw.org/vienna_declaration_action_plan_overview?utm_campaign=media_advisory_jakarta_conf&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ican )
In November and December 2026, the states parties will convene the treaty’s first Review Conference, under the presidency of South Africa, to evaluate the progress that states parties are making to implement the treaty.
Against a backdrop of increasing geopolitical tensions and the undermining of international law by some states, including nuclear-armed countries, the TPNW stands out as an example of successful multilateral cooperation where countries have come together to promote global security by working to end the existential threat to the whole world from nuclear weapons.
About ICAN
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations in one hundred countries promoting adherence to and implementation of the United Nations nuclear weapon ban treaty. This landmark global agreement was adopted in New York on 7 July 2017. The campaign was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2017, for its “groundbreaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition” of nuclear weapons. More information about ICAN can be found at: www.icanw.org
