Welcoming Remarks 2025 Gpwg Opening Plenary

Good afternoon,

I am delighted to welcome you to Ottawa for this first gathering of the Global Partnership Working Group under Canada’s G7 presidency.

Canada is honoured to be chairing the Global Partnership for the fourth time and to welcome the GP back to the country where it was launched more than two decades ago, in Kananaskis.

In the intervening years, we have grown to 31 members and have proven our mettle in delivering an extraordinary range of concrete and innovative threat-reduction projects. Indeed, together we have rolled out more than 26 billion US dollars in programming to mitigate — and in some cases eliminate completely — a full spectrum of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear challenges.

Canada is proud to be a part of this success story, one which has made the Global Partnership one of the most enduring and effective security initiatives in G7 history. In the GP’s 23rd year, we are keen to work with you to renew this Partnership and keep generating these remarkable and sustainable results.

Sadly, weapons of mass destruction — and coordinated action to address the threats they pose — are as salient and pressing today as they were in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 when the GP was conceived.

Indeed, the challenges posed by weapons of mass destruction are amplified in times of global turmoil and uncertainty. Today’s WMD landscape is even more complex than it was two decades ago, Technological advances are driving rapid change in the threat environment. Agreements designed to control such weapons are weakening. Some states are increasing nuclear arsenals and investing in novel WMD and delivery capabilities. And terrorists continue to plot and act against innocents around the world, proving time and again they will use any means to achieve their murderous objectives.

The combination of conflict, instability, and WMD is a highly dangerous one.

The G7 remains gravely concerned about the proliferation of nuclear weapons by North Korea and the threatening nature of Iran’s nuclear program.

Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine has involved the use, and threat of use, of WMD. This includes not only nuclear saber-rattling, but the continued occupation of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and reckless attacks near nuclear facilities. Russia has used riot control agents and other toxic chemicals against Ukrainian troops. And Moscow’s relentless disinformation campaign has featured false allegations of biological weapons development in Ukraine.

Today, there are new ways for terrorist groups to acquire WMD, including harnessing humanity’s oldest and most persistent killer: disease. COVID-19 was a stark reminder of the death, disruption, and costs which a pandemic can inflict — a lesson that is not lost on violent extremists. In this context, the recent Marburg outbreak in Rwanda and evolving Ebola outbreaks in Uganda and the DRC must be recognized as biological proliferation events, generating disease samples that could be used in bioweapons development.

In the 100th anniversary year of the Geneva Protocol prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons, and the 50th anniversary of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, all Global Partnership members have an obligation to counter growing risks that such weapons will be developed and deployed by state or non-state actors.

Meanwhile, the world is watching developments in Syria closely. We know that the Assad regime retained a secret chemical weapons capability. With its fall, the Global Partnership once again has an opportunity to help ensure these legacy stockpiles and facilities are secured and verifiably destroyed.

Indeed, for more than two decades, whenever these threats have presented themselves — be it nuclear brinksmanship by Iran, North Korea’s WMD programs, chemical weapons use in Syria, or the spread of deadly pathogens in Africa — the Global Partnership has answered the call, spearheading, financing, and delivering projects to make the world safer.

In 2025, Canada intends to build on the GP’s impressive track record through three pillars of renewal, injecting fresh momentum and resources to address emergent threats:

Expanded engagement;
Cross-cutting threats; and
Effective functioning.

First, we will extend our footprint to make the most of expertise wherever it resides globally. We will reach out to countries and organizations that are not currently part of the GP but have demonstrated a capacity and willingness to contribute to our mission.

This includes working with partners in Africa and Southeast Asia to contain biological pathogens of proliferation concern. Canada is proud of our early work to develop the GP’s Biosecurity Deliverables, and our more recent push to establish the Signature Initiative to Mitigate Biological Threats in Africa in partnership with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. We will look to expand and deepen these efforts in 2025.

Second, we will develop the tools and expertise to address threats that cut across CBRN domains such as WMD-relevant technologies. From AI and advanced robotics to biotechnology and 3D printing, such technologies have the potential to shorten the path to WMD development. The GP must identify specific ways to both mitigate these harmful aspects and harness their positive potential to bolster non-proliferation and disarmament.

WMD disinformation is another cross-cutting challenge the GP must continue to tackle head-on. We will build on the impressive work of the GP’s WMD Counter Disinformation Initiative to counter false narratives that advance the malicious goals of our adversaries. This includes dishonest tactics to obstruct the pursuit of accountability and security in countries like Syria and GP members like Georgia and Ukraine.

Which brings me to the final essential, but sometimes unheralded, pillar of Canada’s chairship: effective functioning.

To deliver fully on its value proposition, the Global Partnership must match donors with implementers to deliver high impact and policy-informed programming that addresses the most pressing WMD challenges of our time.

Canada will work with all GP members to ensure that our mission and working methods are fit-for-purpose, reflect the current threat environment and represent the varied and crucial contributions of our diverse membership.

We will expand substantive exchanges with the G7 Non-Proliferation Directors Group to strengthen policy and programming alignment, identify common threats, and pursue actionable steps for both bodies, and we will look to formalize a small coordination unit to support the essential behind-the-scenes work of the rotational GP presidency.

In a fraught geopolitical environment, the GP stands out for its spirit of cooperation and the transformative security improvements it has brought to every corner of the world.

Key to the success of the Global Partnership has been its unique combination of perseverance, adaptability, and teamwork. Our strength is our common realization that no partner can do it alone, and that no country should have to. Weapons and materials of mass destruction are a shared threat. It is therefore a shared responsibility for each and every member of our group to do their part to ensure that the unthinkable — the use of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons by states or terrorists — does not happen on our watch.

Let us seize the opportunity this year to inject fresh momentum and resources to address WMD threats, and to prove once more that the GP is up to the task.

Thank you very much.