The future of global efforts to stop nuclear proliferation will be decided at a Conference which opens today, April 17th, in New York. The Treaty must be renewed at the Conference but the voting procedure remained undecided the night before the conference opens. The two remaining issues are whether states will vote by open or secret ballot and, if there is no majority for one option on the first round of voting, whether and when options might be eliminated in order to build a majority.
Some countries favour a secret ballot so they can record a vote without pressure.
States such as the U.S., the U.K. and France are using aid and other issues to garner support for their preferred option of indefinite and unconditional extension of the Treaty. The voting issue may be resolved today, Monday, although officials from states with a variety of views on the problem considered this unlikely.