Conference on Disarmament Discusses Finalising the Reports of its Five Subsidiary Bodies

The Conference on Disarmament today held a public plenary in which the coordinators of four of its five subsidiary bodies announced that final draft reports on the subsidiary bodies’ discussions would be circulated. The President said that if consensus on these reports was reached, they could be adopted at a plenary on Friday, 19 August 2022.

Ambassador Paul Empole Efambe of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, President of the Conference on Disarmament, spoke, as did the following countries: Indonesia, Belarus, Chile, Algeria, Italy and France.

The next public plenary of the Conference is scheduled to take place on Friday, 19 August. The third and final part of the 2022 session of the Conference on Disarmament is being held from 1 August to 16 September.

Statements

Ambassador PAUL EMPOLE EFAMBE of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, President of the Conference on Disarmament, said that he would continue to give priority to the work and reports of the subsidiary bodies. The latest evaluation meeting was held on Monday, 15 August. There were two new versions of the draft reports in circulation, proposed by the coordinators of subsidiary bodies 2 and 4, and three more were being finalised. While the coordinator of subsidiary body 2 had placed the draft under silent procedure until 19 August 2022, the coordinator of subsidiary body 4 had not given any indication of the timing or any other considerations in relation to the adoption process.

To reconcile approaches, Mr. Efambe proposed that the coordinators shared their new texts by the morning of Wednesday, 17 August, and that Member States reviewed them by Thursday, 18 August 2022 at 6 p.m. at the latest. He called on Member States to not send comments that would further delay the adoption of reports. If the coordinators had not received substantive comments beyond the proposed date and time, the first part of the plenary on Friday, 19 August would be held informally to recognise consensus at the subsidiary body level. The meeting could then end with a formal session for the adoption of the reports. This was a difficult exercise, but not impossible to achieve if Member States were flexible.

FEBRIAN RUDDYARD, Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations Office at Geneva and coordinator of subsidiary body four on effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, said that the fourth draft of the report of the subsidiary body had been circulated. Indonesia had tried its best to reflect all the comments of Member States in the report. It called on colleagues to be flexible in reviewing this draft. The aim of the report was to capture the substance of the discussion of the subsidiary body. Indonesia aimed to submit the report as a gesture of respect to the Conference for its efforts in convening the subsidiary bodies.

ALEKSANDR PYTALEV, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Belarus to the United Nations Office at Geneva and coordinator of subsidiary body five on new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons, radiological weapons, a comprehensive programme of disarmament and transparency in armaments, said that Belarus would make all efforts to conform to the plan outlined by the President, and to reflect all comments made by delegates in a final draft of the report by the end of the day. Mr. Pytalev called on Member States to show flexibility to conform with the President’s proposal.

PAMELA MORAGA, First Secretary of Chile at the Permanent Mission of Chile to the United Nations Office at Geneva and coordinator of subsidiary body three on the prevention of an arms race in outer space, said that, since the submission of the draft report, Chile had received several suggestions and comments and identified sticking points. A revised draft that reflected these comments would be circulated later today. The draft report aimed to reflect the discussions of the subsidiary body.

 LAZHAR SOUALEM, Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations Office at Geneva and coordinator of subsidiary body one on the cessation of the arms race and nuclear disarmament, said that several contributions to the revised report had been received. Algeria planned to circulate a revised report tomorrow morning. The revised text would reflect all delegates’ points of view and would be based on consensus.

Ambassador PAUL EMPOLE EFAMBE of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, President of the Conference on Disarmament, said that the coordinators of the subsidiary bodies had all requested flexibility from Member States toward achieving consensus on the reports. These reports were not the reports of one delegation. They did not aim to resolve all divergences but did aim to reflect all points of view.

Italy said that it was very good news that the reports seemed to be approaching finalisation. Italy thanked the President for his leadership, and the efforts of the coordinators of the subsidiary bodies. Italy expressed its support for the President’s proposed plan for finalising the reports. Until the reports were submitted for review, however, no decisions on them could be made. It was thus difficult to predict what would be discussed in the Friday plenary. Italy would continue to be flexible and wished for the reports to reflect the work of the subsidiary bodies. What happened if the subsidiary bodies could not reach an agreement? Would there be an opportunity to report on the work of the subsidiary bodies in another forum?

Ambassador PAUL EMPOLE EFAMBE of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, President of the Conference on Disarmament, said that he did not intend to hold a drafting session on Friday, 19 August. He called on delegates to settle issues with reports directly with coordinators. If there were no comments, this would signify consent. Mr. Efambe said that he was optimistic regarding the outcome and had not considered a back-up option.

France expressed its appreciation for the efforts of the President and the coordinators of the subsidiary bodies. France was fully available to study the reports and would work to achieve consensus but expressed doubts at whether the reports could be sufficiently analysed by 19 August. France would nevertheless continue to cooperate with the coordinators of the subsidiary bodies towards finalising the reports.

Ambassador PAUL EMPOLE EFAMBE of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, President of the Conference on Disarmament, said that, as reports would be submitted by the end of the day, delegates would have sufficient time to analyse them. If all reports had not reached consensus by Friday, those that had reached consensus would be adopted.

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