PRESIDENT OF CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT SAYS CONSENSUS ON IMPLEMENTATION OF PROGRAMME OF WORK STILL MISSING

Ambassador Christian Strohal of Austria, the President of the Conference on Disarmament, this morning told the Conference that consensus on the modalities of implementation of the programme of work still alluded the Conference, and that as they all agreed that the window of opportunity for this year was closing today, they would now concentrate on the Conference’s annual report and other remaining tasks.

Ambassador Strohal said today’s plenary had been scheduled to allow the Conference to make the appropriate decision on the way forward. The window of opportunity for achieving a consensual approach on how to implement the programme of work was closing. He believed they all agreed that the window of opportunity for this year was closing today. He recalled that the P6 had carried out endless consultations and discussions since the programme of work was adopted on May 29. They had also intensified efforts over the last week and had left no stone unturned to reach a common approach. They had also circulated CD/1870/Rev.2 last Thursday. With that in mind, it was with serious regret that he informed the Conference that consensus on modalities of implementation of the programme of work still alluded them. With that situation and given the lack of time remaining, he believed the Conference was now best served to move on to the remaining tasks they had to tackle this year. They were preparing the annual report of the Conference and the first draft would be available this week. He hoped it could be adopted by Thursday, 17 September.

Ambassador Strohal said that the Austrian Foreign Minister would address the Conference at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 2 September, and the Chairman of the First Committee of the General Assembly would address the Conference at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 3 September.



For use of the information media; not an official record

DC09047E