CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT HOLDS PUBLIC PLENARY TO DISCUSS DRAFT ANNUAL REPORT

The Conference on Disarmament this morning held a brief public plenary to discuss its draft annual report to the General Assembly

Ambassador Julio Herraiz of Spain, President of the Conference on Disarmament, said he was holding the plenary to give delegations the opportunity to comment on the Conference’s draft annual report to the General Assembly, in addition to the written comments that should be sent by the end of the day. There was no chance to do this at the 23 August plenary as many delegations had wanted to speak on a whole range of important issues. He thanked delegations who had already sent their written comments.

Belarus announced that on Tuesday, 29 August, it would address the plenary of the Conference with a presentation on new types of weapons of mass destruction and transparency.

China asked if the President would be issuing a revised version of the draft annual report before they started discussing it.

The President said that the secretariat would be circulating two lists, one was the list of countries and the amendments they were suggesting to the draft annual report, and the other was the list of paragraphs which the amendments were referring to. After that process, and following another formal or informal discussion, a second draft of the report would be sent out after decisions were taken on the proposed amendments.

The President said Ahmet Uzumcu, the Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, had requested to address a plenary of the Conference on Monday, 11 September. The Conference decided to invite Mr. Uzumcu to address it on that date.

The next plenary of the Conference on Disarmament will be held on Tuesday, 29 August at 10 a.m.



For use of the information media; not an official record

DC17/028E