PRESIDENT OF CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT URGES MEMBER STATES TO DECIDE ON PRESIDENTIAL DECISION TO RESTART SUBSTANTIVE WORK

Ambassador Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier of Sweden, the President of the Conference on Disarmament, this morning called on Member States to decide by 21 June whether or not to adopt Presidential draft decision CD/2007/L.1, which aims to start substantive work at the Conference, as well as a complementary Presidential statement and a draft decision relating to it.

Presidential draft decision CD/2007/L.1 calls for the appointment of four coordinators to preside over substantive discussions on the issues of nuclear disarmament; prevention of an arms race in outer space; and negative security assurances; and to preside over negotiations on a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.

Ambassador Borsiin Bonnier remarked that the Presidential draft decision (CD/2007/L.1) had been tabled three months ago. Already at that time most delegations had been ready to proceed along the lines it proposed. But some delegations had been asking for clarity, more clarity, and again more clarity. When Ms. Borsiin Bonnier had assumed the Presidency, she had initiated a process of open-ended informal Presidential consultations to establish whether a complementary Presidential statement would help to bring the Conference forward. At the last plenary, she had put two documents before the Conference: the complementary Presidential statement and a draft decision by which the relationship between L.1 and the complementary Presidential statement was unambiguously spelled out.

Ms. Borsiin Bonnier's assessment was that the Conference had now come as far as it could with regard to the documents before it. The basis for a decision was now in place. Today almost all delegations were eager to move ahead on this basis. A few Members had, however, indicated that they were still not in a position to take such a decision today. Out of respect for those who still needed instructions from their capitals, and also out of respect for those who were eager to move ahead, at a plenary meeting on Thursday, 21 June, she would pose the question if there were any objections to the establishment of a programme of work for the Conference on the basis of the three documents before them. That meeting would be her last as President of the Conference on Disarmament. She had spared no efforts to give Members the clarity they asked for. She now asked delegations to give her some clarity: were they or were they not ready to join in consensus on the basis of those documents? She asked members to seriously ponder the urgent message received last week from the United Nations Secretary-General. There was a world outside the Council Chamber. Member States of the Conference bore a heavy responsibility for the future not only of the Conference, but also of multilateral disarmament itself.

Ambassador Jayant Prasad of India said that draft decision CD/2007/L.1 indeed constituted the basis of any constructive multilateral project to move the Conference forward. The President had made sincere efforts to include concerns of delegations on the document, by submitting the complementary Presidential statement and an additional draft decision linking it to L.1. India appreciated the clarity the complementary Presidential statement had provided about the rules of procedure of the Conference, and also that L.1, together with the schedule of activities, would indeed constitute a programme of work. India would, however, prefer a unitary and unified understanding rather than the three separate documents: the draft decision contained in L.1, the draft complementary Presidential statement, and the new draft decision linking the two. India would continue to participate constructively to reach a consensus on a programme of work.

The next plenary will be held on Thursday, 21 June, at 10 a.m., when the Conference will continue its consideration of draft decision CD/2007/L.1.