CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT DECIDES TO HOLD PUBLIC PLENARY ON SATURDAY 7 MARCH TO HEAR ADDRESS BY RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

The Conference on Disarmament this morning decided, at the request of the Russia Federation, to exceptionally hold a public plenary meeting on Saturday, 7 March to hear an address by the Russian Foreign Minister.

Ambassador Valery Loschinin of the Russian Federation said that the President’s predecessors, acting on behalf of the P6, had sent a letter to capitals with an invitation to the leaderships of Member States to address in person the Conference on Disarmament. The Russian Federation had looked into this proposal as it attached great importance to the Conference on Disarmament. The Russian Foreign Minister was planning to be in Geneva on 6 March and he wanted to address the Conference on Disarmament on the issues of arms control, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and to share the Russian views on how to resolve these issues.

Unfortunately, the Minister’s schedule would allow him only to address the Conference on Disarmament on 7 March 2009 in the morning, a Saturday. It could be problematic to organise a plenary on such a day for conference services, said Mr. Loschinin, but this was the only possible time that the Minister was free. He thus appealed to the President and the Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament to organize and hold a public plenary meeting on 7 March at 10:30 a.m.

Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, said that the Secretariat would inform delegations of the timing and the venue of the plenary. Also, there would be no financial implications for this additional meeting as it fell within the budget allocated to the Conference.


The next plenary of the Conference on Disarmament will be held on Thursday, 26 February at 10 a.m.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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