Geneva

Estonia is a reliable partner in the international arms control and disarmament system, standing up for the protection of global peace and security. We support and attach importance to arms control agreements and confidence-building measures that enhance the security of Estonia, the Euro-Atlantic area, and the wider international community.

Estonia has joined all major multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation treaties concerning weapons of mass destruction: the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its five protocols.

Overview of the disarmament and arms control conventions and treaties to which Estonia is a party.

The Conference on Disarmament (CD)

The Geneva based Conference on Disarmament (CD), established in 1979, is the single multilateral forum of the UN to negotiate disarmament affairs. The Conference on Disarmament (and the Geneva disarmament forums that preceded its establishment) negotiated, among other things, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (1968), the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (1972), the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993), and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (1996).

The Conference on Disarmament in Geneva has 65 members; the most recent major expansion took place in 1996, when 23 countries joined. Estonia has participated in the CD’s work as an observer since 2000 and submitted an application for membership in 2001. The CD’s work is based on consensus, and due to the lack of consensus, the applications for membership of Estonia and many other countries have not been approved. In addition, since 2023, Estonia and several other European countries have not been able to participate as observers because our request for an observership status has been blocked.

The CD’s mandate covers almost all disarmament and arms control issues. Unfortunately, since 1998 the CD has been unable to reach agreement on its own programme of work, which means that it is currently not possible to negotiate new treaties and conventions in this format. The last treaty negotiated at the Conference on Disarmament was the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996, which has still not entered into force.

Although the substantive work of the CD has been paralysed due to geopolitical tensions, meetings nevertheless continue to take place on the basis of a very general standing agenda, reflecting states’ views and positions on disarmament and arms control.

Conventions

The Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious Effects (CCW)

The Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW) was opened for signature on 10 April 1981 and entered into force on 2 December 1983. Estonia acceded to the CCW on 20 October 2000. The Convention has 128 States Parties. The seventh CCW Review Conference will take place 16-20 November 2026.Ask

The purpose of the Convention is to ban or restrict the use of specific types of weapons that are considered to cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants or to affect civilians indiscriminately. It is a framework convention with five additional protocols: the Protocol on Non-Detectable Fragments (Protocol I); the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices (Protocol II and amended Protocol II); the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons (Protocol III); the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (Protocol IV); and the Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War (Protocol V). Estonia has ratified all five protocols of the Convention.

Since 2014, the regulation of lethal autonomous weapons systems (Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS)) has also been discussed within the framework of the CCW. In 2017, a separate Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) was established for this purpose; its current mandate runs until the end of 2026.

The main discussion within the GGE on LAWS focuses on whether a new international legal agreement — for example, in the form of an additional protocol to the CCW — is needed to regulate the development and use of these weapons systems, or whether international humanitarian law (IHL) is sufficient. Estonia’s view is that the development and use of lethal autonomous weapons are subject to the rules of existing international law, must comply with them, and that the creation of a new legally binding instrument is not necessary.

 

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (BTWC)

The BTWC (or BWC) was adopted in 1972 and entered into force in 1975; Estonia acceded to the Convention in 1993. The BWC has been ratified by 189 states (and 4 signatory states), who are, under the Convention, prohibited from possessing and using biological weapons for military purposes. The Convention has made an effective contribution to the destruction of biological weapons and to the development of transparent international scientific cooperation. The Republic of Estonia had also signed the earlier 1925 Geneva Protocol, which prohibited the use of biological weapons.

In 2025, the BWC marked the 50th anniversary of its entry into force. Despite this milestone, the BWC still lacks an effective verification mechanism. The BWC States Parties have developed voluntary transparency measures, such as exercises and mutual visits, but there is no effective means of detecting violations and carrying out oversight. The only mechanism that follows compliance is the exchange of Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) “in order to prevent or reduce the occurrence of ambiguities, doubts and suspicions and in order to improve international cooperation in the field of peaceful biological activities”. The CBM-s are submitted once a year and are publicly accessible on the BTWC webpage.

At the 2022 BWC Review Conference, a working group was established to strengthen the Convention, with a mandate running until the end of 2026. The task of the working group is to address the impact of the changed security environment on the Convention and to improve the functioning of the BWC in all its aspects. The working group discusses and makes proposals on issues including international cooperation, technological developments, transparency, verification, financing, and other matters related to the Convention’s organisational functioning. The tenth BWC Review Conference will take place at the end of 2027.

 

Treaties

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapon (NPT)

The NPT was signed in 1968 and entered into force in 1970; Estonia acceded to the Treaty on 31 January 1992. The Treaty has 191 States Parties (only India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have not ratified it), which is why the NPT is regarded as the cornerstone of global nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

The Treaty is based on three pillars: the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, disarmament, and the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Under the Treaty, the states officially possessing nuclear weapons — the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom — undertake not to transfer them to any other state and not to assist in increasing the number of states possessing nuclear weapons. In addition, they undertake to pursue negotiations in good faith on ending the nuclear arms race in the near future. Non-nuclear-weapon states — all other NPT States Parties — undertake, in turn, not to acquire or produce nuclear weapons and to conclude safeguards agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure that nuclear energy is not used for any purpose other than peaceful purposes.

An NPT Review Conference is held every five years. The 11th Review Conference took place in 2026; at its conclusion, states were unable to reach consensus and the final document was not adopted. This was the third consecutive time that Member States were unable to reach consensus, as also happened in 2015 and 2022.

 

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)

The CTBT was opened for signature on 24 September 1996. Estonia signed the Treaty on 20 October 1996, and the Riigikogu ratified it on 21 June 1999. The CTBT has been joined by 187 states and ratified by 178 states, including Estonia.

The CTBT is one of the most important international agreements in the field of nuclear disarmament and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The Treaty prohibits nuclear weapon test explosions and all other nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments. To promote the Treaty and to build up the verification regime, the Signatory States to the Treaty also established a new international organisation – the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) with headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Until the Treaty enters into force, the organisation is called the Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO.

Although the UN General Assembly adopted the CTBT as early as 1996, it has still not entered into force, because the Treaty has not been ratified by all states that had nuclear reactors at the time it was opened for signature — the so-called Annex 2 states to the Treaty, namely Egypt, China, Israel, India, Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and the USA. In 2023, Russia withdrew its decision to ratify the CTBT, citing the fact that the United States has also not ratified the Treaty. Estonia consistently supports the entry into force of the CTBT.

 

Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)

The ATT entered into force on 24 December 2015. To date, 143 countries have signed the agreement, of which 118 have also ratified it. Estonia signed the agreement on 3 June 2013 and ratified it on 2 April 2014

The Arms Trade Treaty is the first legally binding international agreement regulating the import, export and transit of conventional arms. The Treaty establishes common criteria in the arms trade for both producers and buyers in order to achieve uniformly strong international control over the arms trade. One of the arguments for promoting the idea of the ATT was the fact that, while binding international agreements exist on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, no international convention had previously regulated transfers of conventional arms.

 

Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW)

A number of initiatives have been established at the global, regional and local levels to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons (SALW). The most important of these, aimed at limiting the diversion of small arms and light weapons to the illicit market, is the UN Programme of Action (UN PoA), which is politically binding on all UN Member States. The fourth Review Conference of the SALW PoA took place in 2024, where lines of action for 2024–2030 were agreed.

 

Geneva-based think tanks dealing with security issues

– Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF)

DCAF is an international foundation established in 2000 that provides advice and conducts research on security sector reform. In addition, DCAF serves as the secretariat of the Montreux Document Forum. DCAF has 43 member states, including Estonia (being one of DCAF’s founding members), as well as the Canton of Geneva as a separate member.

– Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP)

GCSP is an international training centre and research institution established in 1995. Its membership includes more than 50 countries. Estonia has been a member since 1998. In representing Estonia at the GCSP, Estonia’s Permanent Mission in Geneva cooperates with the Ministry of Defence.

– Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD)

The GICHD was established in 1998 and is focused on training humanitarian demining experts and supporting areas in need of demining. The Centre’s aim is to eliminate anti-personnel mines and explosive remnants of war and to reduce the humanitarian harm they cause. To this end, the GICHD provides resources and finances demining teams, raises awareness of the threats among the population and donors, and supports the development of national and international standards. The GICHD Foundation Council currently includes 19 countries, including six EU Member States, the European Union, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), and UNMAS. Estonia is not a member of the GICHD Foundation Council.