CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT ADOPTS FOUR OUT OF FIVE REPORTS OF ITS SUBSIDIARY BODIES

The Conference on Disarmament this afternoon adopted four out of five reports submitted to the Conference by its subsidiary bodies, created by decision CD/2119.

At the beginning of the meeting, Beliz Celasin Rende, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, stressed that the adoption of the reports of the subsidiary bodies would constitute an important step in the finalization of the annual report for the 2018 session.

Speaking in the meeting were Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, India, China, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico.

At the end of the meeting, the United Kingdom said British prosecutors had today charged two Russian men in connection with the use of the nerve agent Novichok against a former Russian spy in Salisbury. British Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament that they were officers of the Russian military intelligence service.

Russia said because of the late hour, it reserved its right to respond to the United Kingdom at the next plenary of the Conference.

The President said the time and date of the next plenary would be announced at a later stage.


The third and last part of the 2018 session of the Conference on Disarmament will conclude on Friday, 14 September.


Statements

BELIZ CELASIN RENDE, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, stressed that the adoption of the reports of the subsidiary bodies would constitute an important step in the finalization of the annual report for the 2018 session. However, CD/2119 which had set up the subsidiary bodies was not clear on how to proceed with the adoption of the reports.

CANADA said that there were procedural differences with Russia on CD/2119 and Canada deemed it appropriate that all reports by the subsidiary bodies be adopted together as one.

UNITED STATES, acknowledging the difficulty in reaching a consensus on how to adopt the reports, proposed that the discussion continued in an informal setting.

UNITED KINGDOM concurred with the United States and said that the United Kingdom’s position was to look at the reports one by one in an informal setting and as a whole in a public plenary.

RUSSIA disagreed with the interpretation of the Western colleagues on the substance of discussions held on 4 September and proposed that the delegations which had concerns about specific outcome documents express their views either before or after the adoption of the draft reports. The Conference could not consider a package of documents, regardless of how much it wished to, stressed Russia and emphasized that the Conference should not be turned into a hostage to the discrepancy of views of different delegations.

AUSTRALIA agreed with Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom that all the reports needed to be adopted, and concurred on the need to continue the discussion in an informal setting.
FRANCE acknowledged the diverging views on the procedure to adopt the reports, and recalled that during the informal session on 4 September, it had been agreed to adopt subsidiary bodies’ reports one by one in an informal setting, and then as a whole in a plenary.

GERMANY recalled that during the discussions on 4 September, no delegation had raised a substantive point on draft reports except on that of subsidiary body 4, thus it should not be difficult to adopt all other reports as a whole.

HUNGARY said that its position from 4 September remained unchanged.

NETHERLANDS said that it held the position of the United Kingdom and France on agreeing informally on the five reports, noting that the agreement already existed on four of them.

INDIA said it had no problem with the adoption of the subsidiary bodies’ reports except the report of subsidiary body 4, and it was ready to adopt that report too should its concerns be addressed.

RUSSIA reiterated its proposal to consider the subsidiary bodies reports separately, which would give delegations time to come to a consensus on the report of subsidiary body 4, where significant areas of disagreement remained. Russia reminded that the Conference on Disarmament worked on the basis of consensus and any references to the rules of majority were inoperable in this setting.

CHINA said that the Conference should, as soon as possible, reach agreement on the content of the report of subsidiary body 4, and then decide on the procedure of the adoption of the five reports.

INDONESIA said that the outcome of all subsidiary bodies was the common work of the members of the Conference. The reports were not legally binding and were not jump-starting negotiations. They were just the reports of the subsidiary bodies. Indonesia agreed with China’s suggestion on first trying to find common ground on the report by subsidiary body 4. The non-adoption of all five reports would not send a good signal about the Conference, warned Indonesia.

UNITED STATES said it was ready to discuss the adoption of the reports, but was not prepared to re-open the text of any of the reports. It was now the time to adopt them.

BELIZ CELASIN RENDE, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, after resuming the public plenary following an informal meeting, said that they would now move to the adoption of the five reports. She started with the report of the first subsidiary body CD/WP.612.

RUSSIA said that it reserved the right to return to this issue after the consideration of the report.

BRAZIL asked the President to read out the number of the document.

BELIZ CELASIN RENDE, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, said the report of subsidiary body 1 was adopted. Moving to CD/WP.613 on subsidiary body 2, she put forward the report for adoption.

RUSSIA said before they moved to its adoption, it wanted to clarify its status. Was this the report of subsidiary body 2 or the report of the coordinator of subsidiary body 2?

BELIZ CELASIN RENDE, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament,
said it was the report submitted to the Conference on Disarmament via the President.

RUSSIA asked again whether the report was presented on behalf of subsidiary body 2 or on behalf of the coordinator?

BELIZ CELASIN RENDE, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, said the document said it was presented by the coordinator of subsidiary body 2, the Netherlands, and it enclosed the report of subsidiary body 2.

RUSSIA said in that case, Russia requested the President to consider introducing an amendment or a special note or something to clarify that this report had been presented by the coordinator in his personal capacity. Russia reiterated that the report of subsidiary body 2 was not agreed upon with Russia, which did not agree to the final version of the report.

BELIZ CELASIN RENDE, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, said the remarks of Russia would be taken note of in the verbatim records of the Conference and asked if they could go forward with the adoption.

RUSSIA said that it was of the view that these circumstances must be reflected in the official documents of the Conference. Russia would like to make its position absolutely clear. It had no objection to the substance of the report, but it had serious concerns in relation to the procedure according to which this report was agreed upon and presented to the President for submission to the Conference for adoption.

BELIZ CELASIN RENDE, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, said the remarks of Russia would be included in the verbatim records of the Conference and would be part of the report. Could she assume that the report was adopted? It was so decided. They would now take up the report of subsidiary body 3 CD/WP.611. Could she assume that the report was adopted. It was so decided. They would now move to the report of subsidiary body 4.

INDIA placed on record India’s right to reserve its position on the report of subsidiary body 4 as well as on paragraph 50 in the annual report.

RUSSIA said it had a similar comment to make on the final document of subsidiary body 4 which was not agreed upon with Russia. Russia took it that this report was presented by the coordinator of subsidiary body 4 in his personal capacity.

MEXICO said it wished to restate what is said during the informal consultations. Mexico was ready to be flexible in order to reach consensus. At the same time, it regretted that its suggestion, which was sent in a timely fashion, was not taken into account and they were not given an explanation why. Mexico’s suggestions concerned two lines. It was flexible but it wanted to flag its position.

BELIZ CELASIN RENDE, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, said they would park the report of subsidiary body 4 and pass on to the report of subsidiary body 5. Could she assume it was adopted? It was so decided.

UNITED KINGDOM commended the President for her work. British police announced this morning that they had sufficient evidence to charge two Russian persons in connection with the use of the nerve agent Novichok against a former Russian spy in Salisbury. British Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament that they were officers of the Russian military intelligence service, known as the G.R.U. She said that this was not a rouge operation and had almost certainly been approved outside the G.R.U. at a senior level of the Russian State. British and European arrest warrants had been issued for the two men. The international community had already demonstrated its position when 29 countries had expelled 23 Russian diplomats in response to the nerve agent attack.

RUSSIA said that following diplomatic tradition, Russia must respond to the United Kingdom’s statement, which was unamicable. However, the time was late so Russia reserved its right to do so at the next meeting of the Conference.

BELIZ CELASIN RENDE, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, said the time and date of the next plenary would be announced at a later stage.


For use of the information media; not an official record

DC18/42E