Algeria has been elected Vice-President of the 11th Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), held from April 27 to May 22, 2026 at United Nations headquarters in New York, confirming its position among committed actors in the multilateral nuclear disarmament process.
This new election to the vice-presidency of the Conference, which Algeria has chaired twice in the past, reflects its role in supporting the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime.
During the general debate, Algeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Amar Bendjama, warned that the international context remains fragile, stressing that “we meet at a moment of grave uncertainty… for this treaty, for the disarmament regime, and for our collective security.”
He added that “80 years later, the spectre of a nuclear disaster is not behind us,” noting that nuclear arsenals “are amplified and modernized… not dismantled,” while “the nuclear testing moratorium is openly questioned.”
The ambassador also highlighted the lasting consequences of nuclear testing, recalling that “in the 60s, our soil was the theater of 17 nuclear tests conducted by France,” and that “the first detonation fallout reached over 3,000 kilometers away.”
He further pointed out that “generations later, the consequences of this test remain an open wound,” adding that “the IAEA still recorded elevated radioactivity in these areas,” while affected communities continue to suffer from “illness, congenital disorders, and barren land.”
Ambassador Bendjama then raised a series of unanswered questions, asking “why has France not provided us up to now the maps of the exact locations of these nuclear tests or of the buried waste,” and what prevents “the disclosure of historical archives, radiological data and medical records essential for environmental remediation and public health,” and whether “those barriers transcend basic principles and fundamental rights.”
He also questioned what he described as a double standard, stating that “Algeria has offered concrete and constructive proposals for the rehabilitation of contaminated sites,” yet “France continues to ignore these proposals and to deny its responsibilities,” and asking how “these double standards can be justified when the same country has already… conducted proper decontamination in French Polynesia.”
Reaffirming Algeria’s position, he said that “my country has chosen the path of multilateralism… we have met all our obligations.”
He emphasized that the treaty is based on reciprocity, noting that “non-nuclear-weapon states renounced the nuclear option while nuclear-weapon states committed to eliminate their arsenals.”
Calling for candor, he added that “one side has met its part, the other… has not yet.”
He warned that “the failure of two consecutive review conferences has placed the relevance of this regime at the crossroads,” and urged the international community to “restore the integrity of our treaty and to free the world from nuclear weapons.”
