PRESIDENT OF CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT TABLES DRAFT SCHEDULE OF ACTIVITIES AND DRAFT DECISION ON THE APPOINTMENT OF CHAIRS AND SPECIAL COORDINATORS

The President of the Conference on Disarmament this morning tabled two draft documents: namely a draft decision on the appointment of chairs and special coordinators and a draft schedule of activities for the Conference on Disarmament, the working groups and the special coordinators, up to the end of the 2009 session.

Ambassador Roberto Gacia Moritan of Argentina, President of the Conference on Disarmament, said that the intensive consultations he had convened during the month of June had shown him that there was a clear willingness to work. From those consultations had arisen a draft calendar of activities, which would enable the Conference to immediately commence its substantive work, up to the end of the 2009 session. The consultations had also enabled him to steer the work concerning the leadership of each of the subsidiary organs, said Mr. Garcia Moritan. On that basis he proposed a draft list of candidates to chair the four Working Group and the tasks of the three special coordinators. In practical terms, all the necessary elements were ready now for the Conference on Disarmament to get into action and to begin substantive work straight away. Nevertheless he had the feeling that the Conference was still not in a position to adopt these decisions. He was sure that it would be possible to accommodate the minor outstanding details in the next hours or days on both drafts.

In the ensuing discussion on the implementation of the Conference on Disarmament’s programme of work, the draft schedule of activities and the draft decisions on the appointment of chairs and special coordinators, States congratulated the President for his efforts, which had led to those two draft proposals. Several States expressed their support for the current drafts and said that they would support them in their current form.

The Chinese delegation said that it would give its comments after carefully studying the documents. Brazil said that the question of time allotments was still open and the Conference needed to identify how it would be able to pass through the programme of work at an appropriate pace. Russia said that it was important not to lose the current opportunity. The draft documents prepared by the President did reflect their goals and if they were submitted in the form that had been accepted by the regional groups, Russia would be ready to support them. Japan said that the Member States of the Conference should keep in mind that they were still watched by their people in their countries and that they should move quite smoothly to start their work.

Draft decision CD/1867 on the implementation of CD/1864 (the adopted programme of work) is a proposed list of names for the appointment of chairs of the four working groups and the three special coordinators.

Draft document CD/1866 is a proposed schedule of activities for the meetings of the Conference on Disarmament’s four working groups and three special coordinators from 29 June to 18 September 2009.

Speaking this morning were the delegations of the United Kingdom, France, China, Brazil, the United States, Russia, Japan, Pakistan, Chile and Australia.

The next meeting of the Conference on Disarmament will be at 10 a.m. on Friday 26 June 2009.

Statements

ROBERTO GARCIA MORITAN (Argentina), President of the Conference on Disarmament, said that the Conference on Disarmament was a body with a clearly defined purpose. The breadth of its membership allowed for the issues of all regions and sub-regions to be addressed. The Conference on Disarmament had a clear responsibility to fulfil its role. The Conference had done so in the past and he was sure that it would do so again. The intensive consultations he had convened during the month of June had shown him that there was a clear willingness to work. From those consultations had arisen a draft calendar of activities, contained in document CD/1866, which would enable the Conference to immediately commence its substantive work, up to the end of the 2009 session. The draft schedule provided the possibility of addressing the tasks of each working group and special coordinator in a serious way and as spelt out in the programme of work. Each topic also had time allotted to it in a balanced manner. The President understood that the schedule was satisfactory to all members. The Secretariat of the Conference had also ensured the Conference of the availability of all the required and necessary services.

The consultations he had conducted had also enabled him to steer the work concerning the leadership of each of the subsidiary organs, said Mr. Garcia Moritan. On that basis he proposed a draft list of candidates to chair the four Working Groups and the tasks of the three special coordinators, contained in document CD1867. These appointments also reflected appropriate geographical distribution. In practical terms, all the necessary elements were ready now for the Conference on Disarmament to get into action and to begin substantive work straight away. Nevertheless he had the feeling that the Conference was still not in a position to adopt these decisions. He was sure that it would be possible to accommodate the minor outstanding details in the next hours or days on both drafts.

Once the Conference on Disarmament would commence its work, it would also be important to give some thought to the importance of continuity and predictability. In terms of negotiations and discussions, predictability was quite vital and contributed to the best of each topic. Mr. Garcia Moritan hoped that in the weeks to come they would also be able to find a formula to address these issues.

JOHN DUNCAN (United Kingdom) commended the President for his work. He was pleased with the resolution the President was tabling and was happy to say that the United Kingdom would support the President’s resolution if the draft followed the substance of the draft they had seen circulating in the regional groups. It was a collective endeavour to move towards a world free of nuclear weapons. The Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty were one of the building blocks for that work.

ERIC DANON (France) congratulated the President for his work. France was in a very positive position to take a stand on these documents. As the President had said, progress might still be made in the next hours and they hoped that the final drafts would still be in-line with the negotiations that had been conducted until now.

WANG QUN (China) thanked the President for the informal consultations that he had conducted during the last weeks. The Chinese delegation would give its comments after looking at the drafts and carefully studying the documents.

NELSON ANTONIO TABAJARA DE OLIVEIRA (Brazil) congratulated the President for his tireless efforts in recent weeks. The success of the consultations he had undertaken showed his determination. He had made everyone feel comfortable. The question of time allotments was still open and the Conference needed to identify how it would be able to pass through the programme of work at an appropriate pace.

GAROLD LARSON (United States) thanked the President for his work and said that the United States looked towards carrying forward the draft decisions.

VICTOR VASILIEV (Russia) said that just recently delegations had talked about the issue of interruptions after the adoption of the programme of work. It was important not to lose the current opportunity. The draft documents prepared by the President did reflect their goals and if they would be submitted in the form that had been accepted by the regional groups, Russia would be ready to support them.

AKIO SUDA (Japan) said that they could support the suggestions of the President. They understood the chair’s explanation that they still needed some time to settle the last remaining issues. However, the Member States of the Conference should keep in mind that they were still watched by their people in their countries and that they should move quite smoothly to start their work.

ZAMIR AKRAM (Pakistan) commended the way the President had conducted the presidency of the Conference. He had made efforts to reach out to the members and to consult with them. His presidency was a model of multilateral diplomacy. They understood that consultations on the proposed documents were still ongoing. They would remain engaged in this process in order to start work as soon as possible.

CARLOS PORTALES (Chile) expressed his thanks to the President for his tireless efforts to implement the programme of work. Chile supported the proposals and that the Conference could work on this basis.

CAROLINE MILLAR (Australia) commended the President for his extensive consultations that had led to what they now saw reflected in the two documents that were circulated today. Australia appealed to the delegations that had not yet taken their decisions on the drafts to do so as soon as possible in order to move the work of the Conference forward.

WANG QUN (China), in a second statement, said that they fully agreed with the remarks of Australia. In China’s opinion, the two circulated drafts provided a very good basis for consensus. However they still needed one clarification: why was CD/1867 called an “implementation of the programme of work and not CD/1866? For them, CD1866 also fell in the context of the implementation of the programme of work. Could both drafts not be combined into one draft, called “implementation of 1864”?

ROBERTO GARCIA MORITAN (Argentina) President of the Conference on Disarmament said that they were now dealing with a technical matter. The programme of work indicated the path to be followed for its implementation. The first step on that path, with a view to establish the sub- bodies, consisted of the appointment of these bodies’ officers. Document CD/1867 pointed in this direction. Once the Conference was in a position to adopt that document, they would then be able to adopt CD/1866, the schedule and organization of the work, which provided them with a sequence of activities to be performed.

Closing the meeting, Mr. Garcia Moritan said that he would continue his consultations this afternoon with the regional coordinators and the P6. His intention was to convene a plenary tomorrow at 10 a.m. to see whether they could continue with their discussions on the issues they had considered this morning.


For use of information media; not an official record

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