CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT DISCUSSES DEVELOPMENTS AFFECTING CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CONVENTIONS

The Conference on Disarmament today discussed developments affecting the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), hearing from the Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the President of the Sixth Review Conference of the BWC and Chairman of the 2007 meetings of the BWC.

Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said the CWC, the fruit of the Conference’s past endeavours, had proved to be a success story defying some skeptics who had thought that a Treaty containing such sweeping provisions affecting both militaries and the industry, governments as well as the private sector, may be difficult to implement. Contrary to those doubts, the disarmament and non-proliferation regime established by the Convention had continued to grow in strength, gradually but steadily. He noted that compliance by all Member States and also universal adherence to the Convention were fundamental to the success of the CWC. Today, only 13 States were States not Party to the Convention.

Ambassador Masood Khan of Pakistan, President of the Sixth Review Conference of the BWC and Chairman of the 2007 meetings of the BWC, said the BWC contained no provision for monitoring or verification of compliance, no provision for an implementing organization, and many considered this a serious shortcoming. Thanks to the creative and constructive efforts of the States Parties, the BWC was now in good shape and ready to confront the challenges it faced. But much remained to be done, and the success of the Conference was a means to an end, not an end in itself. All States Parties needed to continue to work hard to turn words into action, to overcome their remaining differences, and to convert their shared vision into reality.

Also speaking today were the Netherlands in a joint statement with Poland, Kazakhstan, Italy and Iran.

The Conference also agreed to a request by Montenegro to participate as an observer in the work of its 2007 session.

The next plenary of the Conference on Disarmament will be held on Thursday, 16 August at 10 a.m.


Statements

ROGELIO PFIRTER, Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the establishment of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, they could recount a solid record of accomplishments even as they were aware that a number of challenges lay ahead. He hoped that the Conference on Disarmament would be able to take the decisions necessary for restoring the kind of dynamism that had led to the conclusion of the CWC. The CWC, the fruit of the Conference’s past endeavours, had proved to be a success story defying some skeptics who had thought that a Treaty containing such sweeping provisions affecting both militaries and the industry, governments as well as the private sector, may be difficult to implement. Contrary to those doubts, the disarmament and non-proliferation regime established by the Convention had continued to grow in strength, gradually but steadily.

Mr. Pfirter said the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons now boasted a membership of 182 countries, equivalent to over 95 per cent of the world’s population. Today, nearly 24,000 metric tons of chemical agents had been certified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as destroyed. This represented 33 per cent of the declared stockpiles worldwide. Five of the six possessor States had requested and had been granted extensions in the destruction deadlines. The two major possessors, the Russian Federation and the United States, had until April 2012 to do this. The Russian Federation had accomplished the destruction of 22 per cent of its chemical weapons. The United States had destroyed almost 13,000 metric tones of chemical warfare agents, representing 46 per cent of the total United States stockpile. A few weeks ago, Albania had become the first country to completely destroy its chemical weapons stockpile. India had already destroyed 84 per cent of its chemical stockpile, and by April 2009 was expected to reach its 100 per cent target. The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’s chemical stockpile was expected to be destroyed by the year 2011.

The Chemical Weapons Convention sought to establish a comprehensive regime not only for disarmament but also non-proliferation, Mr. Pfirter said. All of the States Parties needed to devote themselves to establish and reinforce the administrative and legislative measures as required under the Convention. This must be done to ensure that the key provisions of the Convention requiring systematic declarations, industry monitoring, controls on transfers of chemicals, and regulatory measures to identify and track chemicals of concern, were in place in each and every State Party. It was also vital for them to be able to detect, pursue and prosecute any breach of the Convention by their nationals and in any area under their jurisdiction or control. A great deal of work was still needed on compliance from both the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and its Member States.

Mr. Pfirter said that contemporary security threats, including the possibility of the use of chemical weapons by non-State actors, had created a renewed interest in the ability of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to coordinate the delivery of emergency assistance to States Parties in case of an attack or the threat of an attack with chemical weapons. While not being an anti-terrorism treaty, the Convention had a contribution to make in this area. In November, the Organization would host a meeting in which States Parties and representatives of the global chemical industry would have an opportunity to share thoughts and experiences concerning the important issue of protecting critical infrastructure and facilities related to industrial chemicals.

Not just compliance by all Member States but also universal adherence to the Convention was fundamental to the success of the CWC, Mr. Pfirter said. Today, only 13 States were States not Party to the Convention. The lack of support for the Convention in the Middle East represented a serious void on the map where Egypt, Israel and Syria continued to cite regional security concerns for not joining the Convention. A situation of concern existed also in North-East Asia where the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was still not a State Party and had so far declined any contact with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The only other State not Party in Asia was Myanmar, which had been an original signatory to the Convention but had not taken the steps to ratify it.

JOHANNES LANDMAN (Netherlands), in a joint statement with Poland, said Poland and the Netherlands welcomed the visit and address of the Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, to the Conference on Disarmament. The anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) had important symbolic value both as a milestone in itself and as a catalyst for further efforts to consolidate the goals of the first global, multilateral, non-discriminatory disarmament treaty, an unique instrument for non-proliferation and verifiable arms control that offered a credible and effective response to the threat posed by chemical weapons.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Poland and the Netherlands would jointly host a High Level Meeting on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the CWC in the margins of the sixty-second session of the General Assembly. It would take place on 27 September 2007 in New York. The High Level Meeting would be fully devoted to express commitment to multilateralism and the object and purpose of the CWC. It would support the promotion of the universality of the Convention and its full and effective implementation. Poland and the Netherlands urged all United Nations Member States to join preparations and attend the High Level Meeting at ministerial level.

MASOOD KHAN (Pakistan), President of the Sixth BWC Review Conference and Chairman of the 2007 meetings of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), said it had been a privilege to listen to Ambassador Rogelio Pfirter, Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. His remarks were an important reminder of what could be achieved in the area of multilateral arms control and disarmament. The BWC, which entered into force a little over 30 years ago in 1975, was also a product of the Conference on Disarmament, albeit in an earlier incarnation. The BWC’s prohibitions were clear, succinct, categorical and definitive, it was an instrument of principle rather than procedure. It contained no provision for monitoring or verification of compliance, no provision for an implementing organization. Many considered this a serious shortcoming.

The goal of the Sixth Review Conference in 2006, over which he had presided, was to transcend the divisions of the past and to settle the BWC on its new course. The Review Conference had agreed on a Final Declaration embodying a common vision for the Convention and its implementation, ending a 10-year gap and resolving many of the issues that had so divided States Parties. The Conference had also agreed on many practical measures, including a detailed new intersessional work programme to help ensure effective implementation of the Convention until the Seventh Review Conference in 2011, and specific measures to obtain universal adherence to the Convention. Perhaps more significantly, the Conference had decided to establish an Implementation Support Unit for the Convention, addressing a long-standing need for institutional support for the efforts of States Parties in implementing the Convention itself and the decisions of the Review Conference. The Implementation Support Unit was now operational and it was busy preparing for the 2007 Meeting of Experts, which would be held in Geneva from 20 to 24 August. Implementation of the other decisions of the Review Conference was also well under way. Kazakhstan, Montenegro and Trinidad and Tobago had joined the Convention since the Conference concluded, which had increased the number of States Parties to 158.

Mr. Khan said next year, work would turn to the important topics of bio-safety and bio-security, and education and awareness raising. This would be an important opportunity to engage once again with the scientific, medical and educational communities and continue to develop a coordinated, interlinked approach to the prevention of the misuse of biological science and technology. In subsequent years, they would deal with international cooperation and assistance for combating infectious disease, and for responding to cases of alleged use of biological weapons. Thanks to the creative and constructive efforts of the States Parties, the BWC was now in good shape and ready to confront the challenges it faced. But much remained to be done, and the success of the Conference was a means to an end, not an end in itself. All States Parties needed to continue to work hard to turn words into action, to overcome their remaining differences, and to convert their shared vision into reality.

KAIRAT ABUSSEITOV (Kazakhstan) informed the Conference that the accession of Kazakhstan to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) on 28 June this year was a logical and consistent implication of its national policy in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The accession to the BWC was part of another process aimed at joining the Missile Technologies Control Regime. While not accepted formally to the regime, Kazakhstan strictly followed its principles. Kazakhstan’s aspiration to join this regime was driven by the need to develop the potential of the Baikonur space launch site, to ensure access to space services markets and the newest space technologies.


CARLO TREZZA (Italy) said he would like to make some remarks of a general nature concerning the issues of chemical and biological weapons. The tenth anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) deserved celebrating and the same could be said for the significant results in the field of biological weapons as presented by Ambassador Khan. During the ceremony which preceded this plenary, Ambassador Pfirter had said the CWC was the baby coming back to its mother, the Conference on Disarmament. However, he wondered who was the mother and who was the baby, in view of the results achieved by both in these past years. The Conference should be proud of its past record, of which the CWC and the Biological Weapons Convention were among the most significant results. One should also not ignore the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty as other significant achievements. However, looking to the past was not sufficient, and the Conference had to look into the future. In the case of both chemical and biological weapons, there were success stories, both conventions dealt with the total prohibition of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. Lessons could be drawn by the Conference from the implementation of the provisions of both conventions.

Ambassador Trezza said that the Conference was the mother of all disarmament conventions. They had discussed this morning chemical and biological weapons, but they had not mentioned the third pillar of weapons of mass destruction, the nuclear pillar. The nuclear issue had been treated in a different way, not by a single treaty but in a step by step process by States parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Nuclear disarmament was of primary concern to the Conference, as three of the four so-called core issues related to the nuclear field. The Conference had been successful and had a positive record in prohibiting two of the three categories of weapons of mass destruction. The unfinished business was in the nuclear field and this was one of the most important challenges ahead.

SEYED MOHAMMAD KAZEM SAJJADPOUR (Iran) said Iran appreciated this interesting meeting and the statement by Ambassador Pfirter. Iran was organizing a conference to mark the tenth anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention which would be held in Tehran on 22 and 23 October to discuss the different dimensions of the Convention. The participants would also visit the city of Sardash, which the Iraqi Baathist regime had attacked with chemical weapons. Today, victims of that chemical attack were still dying in Sardasht. As a victim of chemical weapons, Iran was very attentive to the implementation of the provisions of the Convention.


For use of the information media; not an official record


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