A number of convergent issues favour a global approach to the removal and non-proliferation of conventional weapons:

1. Efforts to achieve zero nuclear weapons are easier when we give attention to conventional forces and confidence-building measures regionally
2. It is already understood that the holdings and production of some categories of conventional arms is an issue, which has led to the adoption of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (Ottawa Treaty), as well as the controls on small arms and light weapons (SALW)
3. Some states see progress on general and complete disarmament as linked to nuclear disarmament in Article VI of the NPT, so globalising some provisions of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), the Treaty on Open Skies and their associated CSBMs offer a means of realising this NPT provision
4. A major expansion of effective arms control is an effective preventive measure to the well-known conflict pressures arising from international economic dislocation