On August 2, 2023, during the First Meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 NPT Review Conference, CACDA and the Center for Energy and Security Studies (CENESS) held a side event entitled the Nuclear Proliferation Risks of Nuclear Submarine Cooperation among the US, the UK and Australia at the Vienna International Center, and released a joint report The AUKUS Submarine Deal：Risks for the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime and Global Security.

CACDA Secretary General Li Chijiang and CENESS Director Anton Khlopkov co-chaired the seminar. Ambassador Li Song, Permanent Representative of the PRC to the UN and other International Organizations in Vienna, and Roman Ustinov, Charge d’Affaires of Russian Permanent Mission in Vienna, were invited and delivered speeches at the seminar. Cheng Jingye, former Chinese Ambassador to Australia, and Sergey Batsanov, former Russian Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, delivered the keynote speeches. Zhao Xuelin, Engineer of the Institute of Nuclear Industry Strategy, and Valery Bytchkov, Russian Independent Expert, made presentations. More than 70 participants, including representatives from Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands and IAEA secretariat, scholars from think tanks and journalists, attended the seminar.

Ambassador Cheng Jingye stated that the essence of AUKUS is to creating bloc confrontation through military cooperation and reflects the typical cold war mentality, the double standards on nuclear non-proliferation, which will harm the peace and stability of Asia-Pacific Region. It needs the joint efforts from all sides to safeguard the international non-proliferation regime. AUKUS nuclear submarine deal concerns the authority, integrity and effectiveness of the NPT, and should be fully discussed and reviewed within IAEA and other multilateral platforms based on a consensus approach, which serves the common interests of the international community.

Ambassador Li Song pointed that the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal involves the AUKUS partners and member states of NPT and IAEA, and should be reviewed and handled by all members states together. During the 10th NPT Review Conference and the inter-governmental discussion process of IAEA, more and more countries expressed their views and concerns on the AUKUS deal. Since the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal involves new areas of the safeguards regime and will set an important precedent, it should be addressed in accordance to the historical practices of developing and improving the safeguards system, and managed by consensus of all the IAEA member states, which reflects true multilateralism and the Vienna Spirit. The Chinese side will continue to promote an open, inclusive and sustainable inter-governmental discussion process within IAEA.

Roman Ustinov said that the AUKUS deal poses a serious nuclear proliferation risk. Regardless of international concerns, the AUKUS partners opposed related inter-governmental discussion process and insisted on advancing the submarine cooperation. Disregarding the NPT and the international non-proliferation regime, the US pursues hegemonism and double standards on non-proliferation issues, thus becomes the biggest challenge and impact to the current international non-proliferation regime. Involving political, legal and technical issues, the AUKUS deal should not be handled secretly and illegally among the three countries and the IAEA Secretariat. The Russian Side supports the inter-governmental discussion process initiated by the Chinese Side, and hopes related discussion could become a mechanism on a regular basis. (军控协会)