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Canada Announces Global Partnership Goals
March 2025
By Kelsey Davenport
The Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction will focus this year on developing cross-cutting strategies to reduce risk and expanding engagement with states outside of the multinational initiative, Canada announced.
The Global Partnership, established in 2002 by the Group of Eight industrialized states, is focused on preventing chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) weapons proliferation. As chair of the 31-member initiative for 2025, Canada is responsible for setting priorities for the initiative’s work.
In a statement on its plans, Canada said the initiative has had a “transformative impact” on weapons of mass destruction [WMD] threat-reduction efforts because of its “unique combination of perseverance and adaptability.”
To ensure that the Global Partnership can address current and future challenges, Canada will focus on developing a strategy for addressing concerns that cut across CBRN threats, “particularly WMD-related disinformation, technologies, and strategic trade controls.”
Canada also will look to engage states and organizations that currently do not participate in the initiative but “have demonstrated a capacity and willingness to contribute meaningfully to WMD threat reduction.”
One of the partnership’s key tools for reducing CBRN risk is a matchmaking process that connects offers of funding and expertise from initiative members to other states or groups working on specific WMD-threat reduction projects.
According to an annex of projects from 2024, 18 Global Partnership states helped implement 424 projects in 159 countries. Italy, the 2024 chair, prioritized a different set of issues, including support for Ukraine and biosecurity efforts (see ACT, March 2024).
The annex documented projects in Ukraine designed to detect and respond to WMD-related threats; strengthen security at nuclear facilities, including rebuilding infrastructure around the Chernobyl complex; and support for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s work in Ukraine. It also noted that partner states supported 153 biosecurity projects, including programs to strengthen biosecurity and biosafety.