CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT HEARS ADDRESS BY ROMANIA ON MOVING FORWARD WORK IN CONFERENCE

The Conference on Disarmament this morning heard an address by Romania on how to move forward work in the Conference. It also bid farewell to the Deputy Secretary-General of the Conference, Tim Caughley, who is retiring.

Ambassador Maria Ciobanu of Romania said it was well known that the Conference on Disarmament was a fine tune barometer, very sensitive to international security evolutions and to the political climate between key actors of the global stage. During the last 11 years, the Conference had not lived up to its main task, and the continuation of the present state of affairs would only further deteriorate the credibility of this unique multilateral body of negotiation. During the 2008 session of the Conference, Member States were closer than ever for years to build consensus around this forum, but unfortunately failed to seize this opportunity and failed to take advantage of the new flavour of high level interests shared by many countries last spring. Many delegations had asked to make room for creativity in the work of the Conference. Romania shared the view that such a call was not at all restricted to the Presidents of the Conference but to the entire membership.

Ms. Ciobanu said this year’s annual session had just only begun, and they were still at the anticipatory stage, waiting for the arrival of a critical turning point. Romania hoped this moment would come soon, and that it would really mark the reinvigoration of multilateral disarmament. Romania considered that the current P6 had creatively assumed last year’s acquis by proposing the draft organizational framework, as well as by requesting the seven coordinators to organize informal debates on each item from the agenda of the Conference, which were still underway. It was needless to mention that the Romanian delegation was a strong supporter of these plans and it would act accordingly. Romania, like many other members of the Conference, was approaching the current annual session with great expectations for positive developments aimed at moving this body from its already too long standing stalemate. Romania had worked over the years with the sincere desire to contribute to reactivating the substantive work of this Conference, hence the support of Romania for L1/2007 and CD/1840/2008.

The President of the Conference, Ambassador Chitsaka Chipaziwa of Zimbabwe, welcomed Ms. Ciobanu of Romania, who was newly arrived in Geneva. He also bid farewell to the Deputy Secretary-General of the Conference, Tim Caughley, who had reached the mandatory retirement age. Ambassador Chipaziwa said it had been his luck, pleasure and honour to learn from Mr. Caughley how things were done at the Conference. On behalf of the Conference, the President expressed the appreciation of all for the expertise, professionalism and friendship of Mr. Caughley, and wished him the best of luck. The Conference applauded Mr. Caughley.

Mr. Caughley thanked the President and the Conference, especially for breaking the well-held tradition of not applauding during meetings. He was particularly moved by that. He thanked the President and all the Presidents of the Conference last year and this year, as well as his Secretariat. Mr. Caughley said he was alerted to some comments made by one of his predecessors, Mr. Abdel Kadir Ben Ismail, who made some wise remarks at his farewell in 2000. Mr. Caughley said he recommended that the Conference go back to these comments, as for better or worse, these comments were still true. He was leaving at a point when in the margins of the Conference, there were some real stirrings. He felt there was spring in the air in this body, and felt a sense of disappointment at leaving at this point when he sensed an inclination in the Conference to talk less about a programme of work and more about work. He sensed this would create foundations for negotiations. He did not mean to diminish to importance of the procedural framework, but he thought that one needed to keep the procedure in context, given the serious and important issues on the agenda of the Conference.

Ambassador Sumio Tarui of Japan said he wished to say some warm words to Mr. Caughley. Japan deeply appreciated his endeavours for the Conference and for disarmament. Thanks to his tireless efforts, the Conference had enjoyed good relations with the Secretariat. Japan fully appreciated his contribution to the work of the Conference and to disarmament issues.


The next public plenary of the Conference will start at 9:40 a.m. on Tuesday, 3 March when it will hear from dignitaries from Chile, Iran, Italy and Japan. The President of the Conference also outlined the timetable for the informal debates on the agenda items this week and next week.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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