It is a shared responsibility of the entire international community that nuclear weapons must never be used again. But there has been no agreement on new nuclear disarmament steps for years. On the contrary: with the INF Treaty and the Treaty on Open Skies, important elements of the global arms control architecture have broken down.

Nuclear disarmament urgently needs new impulses. As the new federal government, we have resolved to take on a leading role in this regard. Today in Stockholm we are discussing together with other committed partners how we can take a substantial step towards our common goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.

The Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons begins next month in New York. At the conference we want to reach concrete agreements in order to give the non-proliferation treaty new credibility and thus also practical validity. We cannot afford another Review Conference with no tangible results.

As part of the Stockholm Initiative, we developed specific proposals and thus showed a way to make the world safer from nuclear weapons step by step. Today the focus is on how we can ensure that this path is actually being followed.