INCOMING PRESIDENT OF CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT OUTLINES HIS PLANS FOR THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS

Ambassador Tim Caughley of New Zealand, the incoming President of the Conference on Disarmament, today outlined his plans for the next four weeks in order to help the Conference start substantive work.

Ambassador Caughley thanked his predecessor Ambassador Chris Sanders of the Netherlands for the committed, energetic and transparent way with which he had discharged his presidential responsibilities, and for passing on the baton in a smooth change-over. In order to help overcome the limitations of rapidly rotating presidencies, New Zealand would continue what Ambassador Sanders had begun. He would also keep his successor, the distinguished Ambassador of Nigeria, very closely informed. Ambassador Sanders had tapped into a reservoir brimming with desire to get down to real work in the priority areas in the Conference. This level of concern seemed to be based not only on the intrinsic importance of those issues in the current international security environment but also on the need to shore up the "credibility" of the Conference.

Ambassador Caughley said that everyone was aware that the current review cycle of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was about to reach its culmination. The New Zealand presidency was the last full presidency before the NPT review Conference and his concluding statement in one month’s time would offer a timely opportunity to make an assessment reflecting not only progress made within the Conference but also drawing attention to the specific obstacles that stood in the way. Significantly, the last week of the New Zealand presidency would see a number of Ministers address this body, and this would afford an opportunity to sensitize them and perhaps their counterparts more universally on the prospects for and health of the Conference.

In order to get down to business and settle the programme of work of the Conference, New Zealand hoped that the regional coordinators would convene their groups and concentrate during the next two weeks on gauging the acceptability of the approach that was taken in Ambassador Sanders "food for thought" paper. Ambassador Sanders had said that his idea was not intended as an alternative to any existing proposal, but as a focus for the collective thoughts as the Member States confronted a crossroads for this Conference. Ambassador Caughley said that he would wait until Wednesday 2 March to ask the regional coordinators about the outcome of the group discussions, and he would report back to the plenary on Thursday 3 March. He would ask the group coordinators to answer questions on whether there were any members of the group that would be obliged by their capitals to block consensus on the establishment of subsidiary bodies in the manner contemplated in the "non-paper". And if so, what was the specific difficulty or difficulties confronting those delegations and what alternative formulation or proposal would overcome such a problem or problems, yet at the same time stand a real prospect of consensus in the Conference. Unless and until these problems were made transparent, the Conference could not hope to find consensus and the shadow over its usefulness may darken.

The presidency of the Conference rotates among the Member States of the Conference for four-week periods according to the English alphabet.

The next plenary of the Conference will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 3 March.



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