CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT HEARS FROM KAZAKHSTAN ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST NUCLEAR TESTS AND CONTINUES CONSULTATIONS ON ITS DRAFT ANNUAL REPORT

The Conference on Disarmament this morning continued consultations on its draft annual report to the General Assembly, first in plenary and then in an informal setting. It also heard a statement by Kazakhstan on the International Day against Nuclear Tests.

Ambassador Taonga Mushayavanhu of Zimbabwe, President of the Conference on Disarmament, opened the floor. Iran noted that the annual report must be reflective of the Conference’s true mandate and function as the single multilateral negotiation forum which operated on the basis of consensus and should reflect the concern expressed by the Secretary-General related to the lack of progress on disarmament. Cuba rejected the attempts to politicize the Conference and that one delegation could hold the adoption of the annual report a hostage to its political whims.

Kazakhstan recalled that today, 29 August, was the International Day against Nuclear Tests and stressed that more efforts were needed to bring closer a world free of nuclear weapons. The obvious lack of progress in nuclear disarmament over recent decades had led 122 United Nations Member States to adopt the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which Kazakhstan had ratified last month.

Stressing its continued efforts to create a permanent mechanism of cooperation between all existing nuclear weapon free zones, Kazakhstan said it was hosting a meeting on fostering cooperation and enhancing consultation mechanisms among those zones that had started in Nur-Sultan on 28 August. Another initiative was a panel discussion on cooperation between nuclear weapon free zones that would take place on Monday, 2 September, from 1 to 2.30 p.m. in room XXVII at the Palais des Nations.

The Conference on Disarmament will hold its next plenary on Tuesday, 3 September at 10 a.m., to continue consultations on its draft annual report for the 2019 session.


For use of the information media; not an official record

DC19.048E