CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT OPENS HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT

The Conference on Disarmament opened its High-Level Segment this morning, hearing statements by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, and the President of the Seventy-second Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Sigrid Kaag, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, recalled her experience with the Joint Mission of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in Syria, where she saw what could be achieved through conventions and related verification protocols, when political will was applied. She urged Conference members to seize current opportunities to enter into talks aimed at collective security, without naivety and with respect for the traditions and backgrounds of each country, under the principle of “trust but verify”.

In that vein, Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, said that breaking the stalemate in the work of the Conference on Disarmament would send a much-needed positive signal to the world and would also play a determining role in the 2020 Review Conference for the Treaty.

In his address to the Conference, General Assembly President Miroslav Lajčák emphasized the vital importance of disarmament to the entire range of the United Nations’ work. He pointed to the impediment to development posed by spending on weaponry and its proliferation, the use of disarmament as a critical tool for confidence building in peace-making and the strong relationship between disarmament and human rights. Given the enormity of current challenges to global security, he underlined the need for Conference members to break the deadlock of recent decades and maintain the legitimacy of the body by taking concrete steps for disarmament and arms control that would benefit people around the world.


The Conference will hold next meet at 3 p.m. today, Monday 26 February, at 3 p.m., to continue with the high-level segment.


High-Level Segment

SIGRID KAAG, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, expressed regret that proliferation remained a threat almost 40 years after the establishment of the Conference on Disarmament. Instability was widespread, chemical weapons were being used and the taboo against the use of nuclear weapons was under threat. To counter the situation, there was a great need to strengthen mutual trust by concluding treaties and sticking to them. Predictability and verification played a vital role and multilateral cooperation was the only way forward, with each country bearing its responsibility, she stressed. As a long-standing member of the Conference on Disarmament, the Netherlands believed in the importance of the body resuming its important role in that context. Having headed the Joint Mission of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in Syria, Ms. Kaag saw first-hand that much could be achieved through conventions and related verification protocols.

The sad case of Syria showed verification instruments only worked if all countries shouldered their political responsibility. Pointing to the example of the nuclear deal with Iran and its verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency, as a case of countries taking responsibility and verification instruments doing their work, she said such results required perseverance. For that reason, the Netherlands continued to press for multilateral agreements on disarmament and non-proliferation, even if results seemed a long way off. The Conference could only succeed through the exercise of collective will, said the Minister and urged Member States to seize current opportunities. It was critical to enter into talks aimed at collective security, without naivety and with respect for the traditions and backgrounds of each country, under the principle of “trust but verify”.

LASSINA ZERBO, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, said that breaking the stalemate in the work of the Conference would play a determining role in the 2020 Review Conference for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test–Ban Treaty, the last treaty negotiated by the Conference. The success of any further action in non-proliferation and disarmament depended on finishing the task by bringing the Treaty into legal force, making sure the billion-dollar verification investment was preserved for future generations, and establishing a firm basis for the complementary treaties required. Trust was the key element necessary for a successful outcome of the 2020 Review Conference; for that reason, great care must be taken to preserve the integrity of the instruments already established, building trust in them and around them. That meant securing the Non-Proliferation Treaty and its entire chain of responsibilities, of which the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was an integral part.

On the Korean Peninsula, for example, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty could serve as a tool for dialogue following the opportunities opened by the Olympics, while a unilaterally-declared test moratorium moving towards eventual signature of the Treaty would be a start. Outreach and education on the Treaty was also important to create leaders for the future of disarmament and non-proliferation, added Mr. Zerbo, noting that a youth group for the Treaty established in 2016 had active participation from seven of the eight remaining Annex 2 States. The Treaty would also hold its second Science Diplomacy Symposium in in May, in Vienna, he announced, with a particular emphasis on those in the early stages of their career.

MIROSLAV LAJČÁK, President of the Seventy-second Session of the United Nations General Assembly, stressed that the Conference was needed by people all over the world, to meet the challenges of people being killed by explosives, conflicts fuelled by illicit arms flows and anti-personnel mines, and to face a nuclear threat that seemed to be growing ever closer. The Conference was not meeting those urgent needs due to its two-decade-long deadlock, and its credibility and role were in peril. As the world’s foremost multilateral forum on disarmament, the Conference should be producing global frameworks and politics and driving discussions and decisions around the world. If the stalemate continued, however, the Conference would be side-lined, he said, noting that action had already been taken up in other forums.

There was still time to reverse the trend, however, Mr. Lajčák said. There were strong calls heard in the Fist Committee of the General Assembly this year to revitalize the Conference, with new ideas emerging on how that could happen. He welcomed, in that light, the recent decision to establish five subsidiary bodies to the Conference, and hoped that the new format would allow for a new kind of discussion on agenda items with a view to finding consensus. Underlining the linkages of disarmament to the wider picture of the United Nations’ work, Mr. Lajčák pointed to the impediment to development posed by the enormous global spending on arms and the illicit trade in small arms. Disarmament was also a key element in peace-making and conflict prevention, particularly when it was used for building confidence. The relationship between disarmament and human rights was also critical, since arms proliferation hindered efforts to promote such rights, particularly for women. As disarmament cut across all three pillars of the work of the Organization, and was the subject of the first resolution of the General Assembly, the work of the Conference was followed very closely by that body. It was therefore crucial for the legitimacy of the Conference to be maintained by taking concrete steps for disarmament and arms control that would benefit people around the world.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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