CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT CONTINUES HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT, HEARS FROM SLOVAKIA, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, ESTONIA, NETHERLANDS AND LATVIA

The Conference on Disarmament this morning continued its high-level segment, hearing statements by dignitaries from Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, the Netherlands and Latvia.

Miroslav Lajèák, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia, stressed the need to recommit to multilateralism, for any road leading to a less regulated nuclear environment was perilous. The Conference on Disarmament could be both the beneficiary of and the contributor to this renewed commitment, and States must do their best to move its work forward and reverse the doomsday clock.

Josip Brkiæ, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, urged States to find common ground, and said that, like the Conference on Disarmament, Bosnia and Herzegovina worked, lived and breathed through the concept of consensus. While it might be occasionally slow, possibly painful, and certainly not easy, it was crucial, and it was the only way forward.

Paul Teesalu, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, voiced his country’s strong wish to take part in future negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty and participate fully and equally in disarmament discussions as a full member of the Conference. Negotiations on multilateral disarmament treaties and discussions on matters of global importance must be addressed in universally representative bodies and include all sovereign States that wished to be a part of it.

Sigrid Kaag, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, reiterated her country’s firm belief in multilateral solutions, emphasizing that its ultimate ambition was for the Conference on Disarmament to retake its rightful place as the sole forum for disarmament negotiations. The world did not have the luxury of waiting until the geopolitical context looked brighter; instead, States should be bold enough to seize opportunities when they arose.

Edgars Rinkçviès, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, said that it was due to the immense work of the Conference on Disarmament that the world had a number of important treaties at its disposal today, but procedural manoeuvres and lack of political will had kept it from further progress. The right way forward was in a progressive approach to nuclear disarmament, thus the continued relevance of the building blocks set out in the 2010 Review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The Conference will continue the high-level segment at 2.45 p.m. today, Tuesday 26 February, to hear from dignitaries from Poland, Belgium, Egypt, South Africa, Malaysia, Norway, Iraq and Sri Lanka.

Statements

MIROSLAV LAJÈÁK, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia, acknowledged that the world was not doing well in the arms control and disarmament realm and said that this worrisome state of affairs required urgent action. Because tensions and uncertainty were growing, trust and predictability were eroding, while the implications of the digital revolution on societies, including on security and defence, remained poorly understood. This situation must not continue, especially in the view of new vulnerabilities, interdependencies, and challenges that were global in nature. The world must recommit to multilateralism for any road leading to a less regulated nuclear environment was perilous. A domain as complex as arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation needed rules, so States must honour the exiting commitments, and demonstrate political will to compromise, lead dialogue, and work together.

The world needed a relevant Conference on Disarmament, Mr. Lajèák said, which could be both the beneficiary of and the contributor to the renewed commitment to multilateralism, but for that, it must be revitalized. The pragmatic approach the Conference had taken two years ago, including the work in subsidiary bodies last year, gave reason for cautious optimism. The Minister stressed the need to pay due attention to the enlargement of the membership and said that the proposal to establish positions of special coordinators could offer a viable way forward. Finally, Mr. Lajèák stressed that all States must do their part and that all countries in possession of nuclear weapons bore special responsibility to make progress in the area of nuclear disarmament. It was a shared responsibility of all States parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to make the 2020 Review Conference a success. States must do their best to move the work of the Conference on Disarmament forward and reverse the doomsday clock.

JOSIP BRKIÆ, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the outset outlined the new challenges and significant changes in the geopolitical landscape that States faced today, including the growing problem of terrorism and radicalism around the world, new conflict zones everywhere, the migrant and refugee crisis, and a shift in powers and relations between countries and regions. The Conference on Disarmament had a crucial role to play, yet it had found itself in a stalemate for a while now, which was a source of concern for many States. Although no consensus had been reached, the work of the Way Ahead Working Group in 2017 and subsidiary bodies in 2018 had proven to be quite useful to better understand differing positions and concerns of States, noted Mr. Brkiæ.

The United Kingdom’s new proposal to establish subsidiary bodies and special coordinators for the 2019 session was a positive step in the right direction, which in the absence of a consensus on a programme of work, could provide the necessary structure for the work in 2019. Regardless of how complex dialogue and negotiations might appear to be, States must continue the process and find common ground to finally move the work of the Conference on Disarmament forward. Just like the Conference, Bosnia and Herzegovina worked, lived, and breathed through the concept of consensus, and while it might be occasionally slow, possibly painful, and certainly not easy, it was crucial, and it was the only way forward.

PAUL TEESALU, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, agreed with the Secretary-General on the urgent need for greater international efforts to achieve a safer world and collectively respond to global and regional security challenges, for which the strengthening of the existing multilateral architecture was essential. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction remained one of the most serious concerns for international peace and security, while cyber security had become a crucial peace and security issue. In this context, the role of the United Nations in seeking consensus on norms of responsible State behaviour was increasingly relevant, as was further development of a strategic framework for conflict prevention and stability in cyberspace based on international law, in particular the United Nations Charter.

The Estonian Deputy Minister then voiced his country’s strong wish to take part in future negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, and reiterated the request to participate fully and equally in the disarmament discussions as a full member of the Conference on Disarmament. Negotiations on multilateral disarmament treaties and discussions on matters of global importance must be addressed in universally representative bodies and include all sovereign States that wished to be a part of it, Mr. Teesalu stressed, and then encouraged the Conference to make further efforts in order to break the impasse.

SIGRID KAAG, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, remarked on serious threats to the hard fought multilateral agreements, including the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention, and a removal of a crucial signature to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Ms. Kaag emphasized that it was possible to keep pursuing cooperation instead of division, success instead of failure, ambition instead of apathy, for it was the shared ambition to create a more secure and more prosperous world that had established those rules in the first place. In its 40 years, the Conference on Disarmament had done incredibly important work in negotiating treaties pivotal to disarmament architecture and the world’s security.

Other examples that showed the transformational power that international norms could have included the Ottawa Convention and the Convention on Cluster Munitions, said the Minister, stressing that States had achieved so much in those areas, simply because they dared to be ambitious. The work, however, was far from over since the world needed a comprehensive multilateral and ambitious approach to questions before it. As a country with a strong reputation in the field of non-proliferation and disarmament, and a firm belief in multilateral solutions, the Netherlands’ ultimate ambition was for the Conference on Disarmament to retake its rightful place as the sole forum for disarmament negotiations. The world did not have the luxury of waiting until the geopolitical context looked brighter. Instead, States should be bold enough to seize the opportunities when they arose. “I believe we must, and I believe we can,” concluded Ms. Kaag.

EDGARS RINKÇVIÈS, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, said that it was due to the immense work of the Conference on Disarmament that the world had a number of important treaties at its disposal today. Procedural manoeuvres and lack of political will had kept the Conference from progress and from agreeing on a substantive programme of work. It was the collective duty to avoid the erosion of the rules-based order, stressed Mr. Rinkçviès. In recent years, the Chemical Weapons Convention had been defied on several occasions, hence States had a duty to uphold a long-standing norm prohibiting the use of chemical weapons. Latvia remained preoccupied by the dire financial situation of the Convention on Biological of Weapons and urged all States parties to honour their financial obligations.

The right way forward was in a progressive approach to nuclear disarmament, thus the continued relevance of the building blocks set out in the 2010 Review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, said the Minister, welcoming the P5’s renewed commitment to the treaty. Arms control could be effective only if all parties complied with their commitments, therefore Russia’s violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty had eroded its effectiveness, and now trust building was needed in order to prevent a vacuum in international arms control architecture. Latvia was one of the 27 States which had been trying to join the Conference since 2004; in this vein, the Minister urged the Conference to continue discussions on membership enlargement.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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