CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT TO HOLD FIRST PUBLIC PLENARY OF 2009 SESSION ON 20 JANUARY

The Conference on Disarmament, the world's sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, will hold the first public plenary of its 2009 session on Tuesday, 20 January at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The session will open under the presidency of Ambassador Le Hoai Trung of Viet Nam. The presidency of the Conference rotates amongst its Member States according to the English alphabetical order; each President holds office for four working weeks. Zimbabwe, Algeria, Argentina, Australia and Austria will also hold the presidency during 2009. The three parts of the 2009 session of the Conference will be held from 19 January to 27 March for the first part; 18 May to 3 July for the second part; and 3 August to 18 September for the third part.

In accordance with its rules of procedure, the Conference "shall adopt its agenda for the year at the beginning of the session. In doing so, the Conference shall take into account the recommendations made to it by the UN General Assembly, the proposals by its Members, and decisions of the Conference."

In 2008, the Conference was again not able to reach agreement on a programme of work and so was unable to start work on substantive issues. The 2008 annual report of the Conference notes that “The Conference has achieved substantive progress by conducting important thematic debates on all agenda items and has advanced considerably in its efforts but could not yet reach consensus on a programme of work.” The report records that the 2008 Presidents of the Conference appointed Coordinators for agenda items 1 to 7 and decided on the organizational framework of the Conference, without prejudice to any future decisions of the Conference on its programme of work. The Coordinators, under the authority of the 2008 Presidents, chaired informal meetings on agenda items 1 to 7 - cessation of a nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament; prevention of nuclear war; prevention of an arms race in outer space; effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons; radiological weapons; comprehensive programme of disarmament; and transparency in armaments - and reported in their personal capacity on their results.

The report also sets out the introduction and content of draft decision CD/1840 submitted by the 2008 Presidents of the Conference on 13 March, containing a draft programme of work. According to draft decision CD/1840 by the 2008 Presidents of the Conference, the Conference would appoint Coordinators to preside over substantive discussions three of four core issues identified by the Conference: nuclear disarmament and the prevention of nuclear war; prevention of an arms race in outer space; and negative security assurances for non-nuclear weapon States. On the fourth item, a Coordinator would be appointed to preside over negotiations, without any preconditions, on a non-discriminatory and multilateral treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, thus "providing all delegations with the opportunity to actively pursue their respective positions and priorities, and to submit proposals on any issue they deem relevant in the course of negotiations".

A wide range of delegations supported the Presidential Proposal contained in document CD/1840, the report said. “A number of delegations though who had some concerns about certain elements in the Proposal said that they would not oppose consensus on it and other delegations stated they had concerns that the Proposal would not satisfy their expectations. Some delegations stated that they had substantive reservations and concerns about the Proposal and that more work was needed to address them.” The report underscored that, accordingly, further consultations were needed to reach consensus on a programme of work.

Member States of the Conference

The 65 members of the Conference are Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal. Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Viet Nam and Zimbabwe.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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