CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT HEARS STATEMENTS FROM RUSSIAN FEDERATION, NEW ZEALAND, SOUTH AFRICA AND SPAIN

The Conference on Disarmament this morning heard statements from the Russian Federation on the prevention of an arms race in outer space, and from New Zealand, South Africa and Spain on their respective positions on reaching a consensus on a programme of work in order for the Conference to meet global disarmament challenges.

The Russian Federation said the Government’s priority was to prevent an arms race in outer space. To that end, the Russian Federation had declared at the last session of the United Nations General Assembly that it would not be the first country to place weapons of any kind in outer space and it called on all countries with a space potential to follow its example.

New Zealand said that while concentrating on real threats to international security, the focus of the Conference must be on agreeing as a matter of urgency on a programme of work or a timetable that would be accepted.

Spain said the Government was of the view that the efforts made by the members of the Conference should be more focused on finding imaginative solutions to move forward on substantive issues on the Conference’s agenda.

And South Africa said the "A-5" proposal represented a compromise that deserved the support of all members of the Conference and was the most realistic proposal for the adoption of a programme of work. South Africa felt the time had come for the members of the Conference to consider whether it would be more useful and cost effective to suspend the Conference’s activities until a consensus resolution or resolutions were adopted in the General Assembly mandating the commencement of negotiations.

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

Statements

LEONID SKOTNIKOV (Russian Federation) said the priority of the Government in the agenda of the Conference on Disarmament was the prevention of an arms race in outer space. If the international community was able to prevent the placement of weapons in outer space, progress in space science and technology would be directed into a constructive course to everyone’s benefit. Mr. Skotnikov also expressed his country’s interest in resuming the substantive work of the Conference on Disarmament in order to commence a detailed discussion on the problem and ways of its solution in an Ad Hoc Committee on prevention of an arms race in outer space.

Mr. Skotnikov recalled that at the fifty-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Russian Federation had proposed a moratorium on the placement of combat devices in outer space prior to reaching an appropriate international agreement. Russia also stated last year it had no plans to create space weapons systems and place them in outer space. Moreover, last October at the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly’s fifty-ninth session Russia had launched a new major initiative aimed at preventing the weaponization of outer space. For the first time Russia had unilaterally and unconditionally declared it would not be the first country to place weapons of any kind in outer space and it had called on all countries with a space potential to follow its example. This statement, Mr. Skotnikov added, confirmed that his Government did not intend to constitute a threat to anyone in outer space and from outer space.

The Russian Federation believed that unilateral political statements – similar to its own – by nations possessing a space potential could create a "safety net" of a sort of interweaving security assurances in outer space. The Russian statement was a means of facilitating international cooperation and was conducive to strengthening safety and security of spacecrafts in outer space. Such statements, he added, would not be legally binding but rather would create a favourable political and psychological condition to commence working out such a treaty and promote mutual trust.

TIM CAUGHLEY (New Zealand) said New Zealand fully acknowledged the right of any delegation to the Conference on Disarmament to make observations and proposals on its agenda. He suggested that if there was a structural problem with the Conference, it did not originate with the agenda itself but from the rules of procedure. New Zealand believed that the Conference’s focus must be on agreeing as a matter of urgency on a programme of work or a timetable that would be accepted. The Conference, he added, needed to be particularly conscious of and responsive to the expectations of it flowing not just from the United Nations but also from the Non Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.

In closing, Mr. Caughley said New Zealand hoped that the focus of the Conference on Disarmament’s work would turn to the issues of the moment, demonstrating that Governments were intent on rising above the shaping of agendas of meetings, concentrating instead on real and immediate threats to international security.

GLAUDINE MTSHALI (South Africa) said the international community’s endeavours to address issues of non-proliferation, disarmament and arms control would continue to be frustrated if the Conference on Disarmament did not get to work immediately. She added that the endeavours to adopt a programme of work had routinely been thwarted by a lack of political will and narrow self interest. South Africa believed that the "A-5" proposal represented a compromise that deserved the support of all members of the Conference and was the most realistic proposal for the adoption of a programme of work. In that regard, South Africa appealed to all members of the Conference to show flexibility and commitment to ensure that the Conference lived up to the expectations of the international community.

The South African delegation suggested that the time had come for the members of the Conference to consider whether it would be more useful and cost effective to suspend the Conference’s activities until a consensus resolution or resolutions were adopted in the General Assembly mandating the commencement of negotiations. This would both allow for the redeployment of needed resources to areas of need and would avoid the "endless disputes and deadlock" in the Conference on its programme of work.

In concluding, Ms. Mtshali affirmed her Government’s readiness to work with all Members of the Conference on Disarmament to break the deadlock which it had encountered for several years.

JUAN ANTONIO MARCH (Spain) said the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps during the Second World War should serve as a reminder to the international community on the need to reduce the potential of destruction posed against humanity and to advance towards controlled disarmament. Spain believed that efforts should be focused more on finding imaginative solutions to move forward on substantive issues on the Conference’s agenda. Moreover, Spain stood ready to adopt a more flexible position on the subject of the Conference’s agenda if it integrated the goals of the Conference and did not compete with other international forums, such as the Security Council, among other things.