Around 40 representatives of the authorities and academia of the four countries took part in the seminar, which focused on the challenges leading up to the forthcoming Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in May. The Norwegian side was represented by Ms. Inga M. W. Nyhamar, Deputy Director General and Head of the Division for disarmament, non-proliferation and export control in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mr. Sverre Lodgaard, Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs; and Mr. Svein Mykkeltveit, Programme co-ordinator at the NORSAR Research Foundation.
The purpose of the seminar was to highlight West European and Chinese views on topical disarmament and non-proliferation issues, and to promote further dialogue between officials and researchers in an important phase of the international disarmament and non-proliferation efforts. The format of the seminar was conceived after the launch in 2009 of the book "Nuclear Test Ban, Converting Political Visions to Reality", written by the seismologists Svein Mykkeltveit (Norway), Hein Haak (Netherlands) og Ola Dahlman (Sweden).