Press Release - Nuclear Security Summit 2016 Action Plan in Support of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism

The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) supports the mission of the voluntary partnership of 86 countries and 5 official observer organizations to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, deter, and respond to nuclear terrorism by conducting multilateral activities that improve partner nations' plans, policies, operational procedures and capacity and the general concept of interoperability among partner nations.

We will carry out this Action Plan consistent with national laws, policies, procedures, capacities, and available resources to appropriately support implementation of the nuclear security-related mandates of this organization. This Action Plan also describes measures that we, in our roles as partner nations, advocate that the GICNT pursue, through its decision-making bodies, in order to appropriately promote and advance nuclear security. Assistance in this plan is to be provided upon request of a recipient state.

ACTIONS:

A. CAPACITY BUILDING

1. Advocate for GICNT activities that promote capacity building across the spectrum of nuclear security challenges to further promote the ability of partner nations to work together to prevent, deter, detect, and respond to nuclear terrorism events.

2. Increase technical capacity of GICNT partner nations by promoting understanding of critical technical concepts and sharing models for practical implementation of important nuclear security concepts, encouraging and assisting States to undertake measures consistent with relevant legal instruments, national legal frameworks, and IAEA Nuclear Security Series guidance documents.

3. Build awareness of international resources that are available to partners interested in seeking additional support.

4. Host exercises, workshops, expert discussions, and other activities that seek to build national capacity of GICNT partners in nuclear security, particularly in the three current focus areas of GICNT: nuclear detection, nuclear forensics, and response and mitigation.

5. Convene expert meetings to discuss issues and develop GICNT activities in other technical subjects or on cross-disciplinary issues consistent with the GICNT Statement of Principles.

6. Sponsor GICNT activities that provide a forum for partners to exchange information and deepen understanding of a specific technical topic.

7. Ensure that GICNT activities continue to uplift the dialogue between the technical community and decision-makers.

B. COOPERATION AMONG PARTNERS

1. Actively sponsor and participate in GICNT activities that provide a foundation for cooperation and the exchange of information to flourish among GICNT partners.

2. Recognize and uplift the efforts of GICNT partners to engage in bilateral, regional or multilateral frameworks.

3. Ensure activities in the GICNT are conducted with regard to the confidentiality of sensitive information.

4. Emphasize within GICNT activities mechanisms for engagement between the partners in a nuclear security crisis situation.

5. Engage proactively and directly with other GICNT partners to jointly share experiences, mentor, and collaborate on nuclear security issues.

6. Work bilaterally or multilaterally to plan and implement GICNT meetings, workshops and exercises that recognize and demonstrate opportunities for cooperation in nuclear security.

7. Ensure that subject matter experts from relevant organizations participate in GICNT activities and encourage a cross-disciplinary dialogue and exchange of expertise, to include representatives of law enforcement, emergency management, customs, border security, public health, regulatory agencies, industry as well as the technical/scientific communities and national laboratories.

8. Share information on and reports from national and multilateral activities in nuclear security within the GICNT as appropriate.

C. SCENARIO-BASED DISCUSSIONS, TABLETOP EXERCISES, AND FIELD EXERCISES

1. Host activities under the auspices of GICNT that promote experiential (scenario-based) practice of nuclear security principles and guidance documents through expert-level scenario-based discussions, tabletop exercises, and field exercises.

2. Host and support GICNT activities that promote the cross-disciplinary exchange of expertise and practices among key communities of nuclear security experts (e.g., detection, forensics, law enforcement, and response experts).

3. Convene groups of technical experts, policy experts and decision-makers for in-depth analysis of issues and discussions of practical implementation of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Nuclear Security Series guidance documents and scenario-based practice through tabletop exercises and field training exercises.

4. Host cross-disciplinary tabletop exercises, under the coordination of the GICNT's Implementation and Assessment Group that encourage the exchange of experiences and expertise among the key communities of nuclear security experts.

5. Host exercises in coordination with partner nations to examine and demonstrate mechanisms for bilateral coordination.

6. Invite other nations and official observers to observe national exercises and report on national exercises to the GICNT partners.

7. Participate in GICNT activities that intentionally build partners' capacity to develop and implement national-level exercises.

8. Build GICNT activities and exercises to increase level of technical depth or otherwise ensuring such activities become progressively more challenging and informative for partner nations.

9. Leverage important lessons learned and conclusions from each exercise or workshop to enhance subsequent events and the overall strategic plan of the GICNT.

D. COORDINATION AND COLLABORATION

1. Promote coordination and collaboration between GICNT and relevant international institutions and initiatives to support nuclear security capacity building.

2. Ensure that the activities of the GICNT support and complement the work of the five official observers of GICNT (the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the European Union, and the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Insititute (UNICRI)) as well as other relevant organizations and initiatives in coordinating sharing, lessons learned, good practices, guidance and resources, recognizing the central coordination role of the IAEA, and including active participation of relevant GICNT officials in IAEA-hosted Information Exchange Meetings.

3. Incorporate the IAEA nuclear security guidance and highlight applicable training resources and other tools within GICNT activities and workshops.

4. Convene workshops or experts meetings to highlight the critical importance of the legal framework in support of nuclear security, to uplift IAEA, UNODC and other available training on the legal framework pertaining to nuclear security.

5. Conduct workshops that underscore partners' lessons learned in practical implementation of nuclear security guidance, in coordination with other international institutions.

6. Report outcomes and lessons learned to all stakeholders.

7. Ensure regular dissemination of technical documents and reports and products of GICNT activities to other cognizant international organizations.

8. Coordinate with other international organizations, including through the IAEA Information Exchange Meetings, to recognize and uplift efforts of GICNT partners to engage in scenario-based dialogue and discussion of key nuclear security challenges and to review and implement lessons learned.

9. Encourage GICNT collaboration with other expert communities such as industry, the medical community and scientific research institutions, by inviting experts from these communities to participate in GICNT events as appropriate, to further identify practical measures, tools and resources available to countries seeking to build or improve national capacity in specific areas of nuclear security related to combating nuclear terrorist threats.