Marina Kaljurand to become member of UN Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters

Marina Kaljurand. Photo: Konstantin Sednev

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has invited Estonian MEP Marina Kaljurand to become a member of the UN Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (ABDM) as an independent expert.

„The UN secretary-general is foremost expecting me to contribute to addressing new security threats such as cyber attacks, the use of artificial intelligence in warfare and hybrid threats,“ Kaljurand, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDE), said in a press release.

The Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters (ABDM) was established in 1978 and there are 15 members of the board, including representatives of such nuclear powers as the U.S., Russia, U.K., France and India. The UN secretary-general expects the ABDM to make recommendations on the modernization of nuclear weapons and conventional arms control in the increasingly complex international security situation. The ABDM will make its recommendations to the secretary-general by the end of 2021.

„I am glad that the UN secretary-general considered it necessary to involve my expert knowledge and experience. Most recently, I participated in the secretary-general’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation from 2019-2020, which submitted its report to the secretary-general last May,“ Kaljurand said.

The ABDM is to meet at the end of January in Geneva and the focus of that meeting will be on problems related to nuclear weapons control.

„Recent events in Iran, which could lead to the country’s withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the withdrawal of Russia and the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as well as the expiration of several arms control agreements in the coming years, have exacerbated the situation. The situation is more complicated than during the Cold War, when military equilibrium was maintained by Russia and the United States. New threats and new actors are now emerging and the UN needs to carefully consider what can be done in the changed security situation,“ Kaljurand said.