CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT DISCUSSES DRAFT REPORT TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON 2007 SESSION

The Conference on Disarmament this morning discussed the draft report prepared by its President on its 2007 session that it will present to the General Assembly, hearing from Algeria, Pakistan, New Zealand, Italy, the United Kingdom, Iran and Turkey. China also talked about the importance of transparency in armaments and its decisions to start reporting to the United Nations Secretary-General on basic data for its military expenditures starting this year and to resume its reporting to the UN Register of Conventional Arms.

Speaking on the draft report presented by Ambassador Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui of Syria, the President of the Conference, Algeria said the efforts made during the year should be reflected in the report, and the developments which had occurred should not be hidden. The report must follow the parameters of the Conference’s rules to be factual, reflect faithfully the debate, and avoid selective quotations or value judgments. Pakistan said the report should reflect equal treatment to all issues and should not indirectly or inadvertently give legitimacy to interim measures taken for functional reasons. Within this framework, Pakistan had presented amendments annexed to the statement which it hoped would make the report more balanced.

New Zealand said it was very important that the report maintain the flavour of the discussions that had been held this year. It would be unfortunate if the draft report was gutted to the stage where a lot of the flavour and the useful progress made during the year was removed from it. Italy said the draft report presented a factual account of the work done on the agenda items of substance and was based on documents presented by Member States of the Conference, making it as factual as possible.

The United Kingdom said there was no desire to seek to attribute blame on the lack of consensus in the report. However, it was important that the countries which had exercised their legitimate right to block the consensus should not try to hide this fact. The United Kingdom believed that the President had produced an excellent first draft which met the requirements of balance and honesty and the Conference should stick to it. Iran said the draft report in principle should be factual, not repetitive and should avoid value judgments. The draft was good and needed only some minor changes. And Turkey said it would be practically impossible to cover all the points made by every delegation during the discussions in the report. The Conference was not able to achieve what it aimed for, but it did lay the groundwork for the following year. Turkey hoped that no major changes were made to the report.

At the beginning of the meeting, the President of the Conference welcomed the new Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Hans Dahlgren.

After the public plenary, the Conference continued in private to discuss the draft report to the General Assembly. The date of the next public plenary of the Conference will be announced at a later date. The Conference will conclude the third and last part of its 2007 session on Friday, 14 September.

Statements

HAMZA KHELIF (Algeria), speaking on behalf of Ambassador IDRISS JAZAIRY of Algeria, said the task of the President was difficult as it came at a point where the Conference had both fears and hopes at the end of its 2007 session and where it needed to report to the General Assembly on the work conducted this year within the Conference. It was clear that it would be very difficult to reflect in a few pages the extensive debates that the Conference had held throughout the year. The Algerian delegation, even with the absence of an agreement on the work plan of the Conference, was pleased with the common platform agreed upon by the Presidents of the 2007 session (P6), which was the result of following up on last year’s work. The P6 were thanked for their collective efforts to ensure that the task was carried out successfully. The seven coordinators appointed by the P6 had also carried out good work and their conclusions on the thematic debates, which reflected their personal assessments, nonetheless added new ideas which enriched the Conference as a whole. The package proposed by the P6 included three documents which represented significant progress and could lead the Conference to overcome its present situation. However, the contents of the package had not yet reached the necessary state of maturity in terms of the work programme.

The efforts made during the year should be reflected in the report, and the developments which had occurred should not be hidden. The rule of consensus must not impede from the necessity of reflecting all positions in the report. At the same time, the report must avoid selective or problematic formulations or a repeat of last year’s bad experience. It was important for the report to follow the parameters of the Conference’s rules to be factual, reflect faithfully the debate, and avoid selective quotations or value judgments. In this regard, Algeria wished to suggest that the message delivered by Sergio Duarte, High Representative of the Secretary-General for disarmament affairs, on 21 August be reflected in the report. Algeria would have further comments on the report at a later stage.

CHENG JINGYE (China) said transparency in armaments was an important item on the agenda of the Conference. China wished to brief the Conference on its latest measures in this regard. China had always attached importance to transparency in armaments and since 1995 it had issued numerous papers which illustrated its national policies on armaments. China had also conducted bilateral and multilateral exchanges to improve transparency. Recently, China had taken two important decisions. In the first, starting this year, China would report to the United Nations Secretary-General on basic data for its military expenditures. In the second, after a certain country had stopped reporting to the UN Register of Conventional Arms to the Chinese province of Taiwan, China would resume its reporting to the Register. China supported the role of the United Nations in promoting transparency in armaments and would continue to make efforts with the rest of the world in advancing peace and security.

MASOOD KHAN (Pakistan) said the concluding part of the 2007 session needed careful handling and the President of the Conference was congratulated for holding consultations in the most prudent and thoughtful manner. Pakistan was grateful to the President for preparing the first draft of the report which could be an excellent basis for a balanced and consensual report. The report had to give a factual account and reflect negotiations and work of the Conference, contain conclusions and decisions if reached during the year, and refer to the working papers and proposals submitted during the year. Pakistan would work towards adopting a report that was factual. It should delete repetitive elements and should do away with any redundancy. It should also avoid value judgments, negative characterizations and selective quotations tilted one way or the other. The report should reflect equal treatment to all issues and should not indirectly or inadvertently give legitimacy to interim measures taken for functional reasons. Within this framework, Pakistan had presented amendments annexed to the statement which it hoped would make the report more balanced.

DON MACKAY (New Zealand) said he wished to echo the comments made by other speakers with regard to the important role of the President and their complete confidence in the way

he was handling the situation. New Zealand wished to make a couple of comments in light of the statements made by other colleagues. New Zealand welcomed the statement by China, as the issue of transparency in armaments was given a great deal of importance in the informal consultations held by the Coordinators. New Zealand welcomed further moves by colleagues in the area of transparency in armaments, thanked China for its statement, and looked forward to receiving further information following up on the Chinese decisions.

Concerning the draft annual report of the Conference, the President had presented a draft in which they could have confidence. Clearly, from comments already made, colleagues would have proposals to amend the draft. However, it was very important that the report maintain the flavour of the discussions that had been held this year. It would be unfortunate if the draft report was gutted to the stage where a lot of the flavour and the useful progress made during the year was removed from it. They all knew that the work carried out this year had advanced the situation in the Conference a great deal and the vast majority in the Conference hoped that this work would enable the start of substantive work in the Conference very soon as far as negotiations were involved. New Zealand had not looked at all the proposed amendments, but it noted that Pakistan suggested the deletion of paragraph 56 which was one of the few forward-looking paragraphs in the report and talked about the Conference building on the efforts made and keeping the momentum that had been created. This was very clearly felt in the Conference and it would be very unfortunate if those sentiments were to be removed from the document. Although precedents were important, they should not allow themselves to be strangled by such precedents. They had had a good year in the Conference and the report needed to reflect this and to retain the flavour.

CARLO TREZZA (Italy) said the draft report reflected correctly the exceptional work done by all in the Conference this year. Italy looked forward to working on it in a constructive way. Like New Zealand, Italy wished to express appreciation for the statement made by China which had announced that from now on it would participate in the reporting on military expenses and would report to the UN Register for Conventional Arms. This indication of transparency in armaments was welcomed. Algeria was thanked for its statement of general support and Italy took note of the constructive remarks and suggestions that Algeria had made. The draft report presented a factual account of the work done on the agenda items of substance and was based on documents presented by Member States of the Conference, making it as factual as possible. Italy was not in a position to comment on the amendments proposed by Pakistan at this stage. However, Italy took note of what Pakistan said that the report should reflect developments in the session which was particularly fruitful.

JOHN STEWART DUNCAN (United Kingdom) thanked the President for the draft report which was an excellent basis for work in the view of the United Kingdom. The work of the Presidents of the 2007 session (P6) had continued the remarkable efforts of the previous year in developing a method of work that would allow the Conference to have real discussions on the issues of the agenda. Some of the discussions had been contentious, but they had all been carried out in good faith. The package of proposals held the possibility of progress and the United Kingdom was disappointed that no consensus had been possible on the package. However, it was encouraged by the spirit of compromise that had been shown, and wished to capture and report on the good work of the session in the draft report. There was no desire to seek to attribute blame on the lack of consensus. However, it was important that the countries which had exercised their legitimate right to block the consensus should not try to hide this fact. The United Kingdom believed that the President had produced an excellent first draft which met the requirements of balance and honesty and the Conference should stick to it.

SEYED MOHAMMAD KAZEM SAJJADPOUR (Iran) thanked the President of the Conference for preparing the draft report which in principle should be factual, not repetitive and should avoid value judgments. The draft was good and needed only some minor changes. Some issues had been raised by dignitaries and these should be mentioned. On the P6 initiative, the rules of procedure should always be followed. More elaboration in paragraphs 15 and 29 were also needed in this line. In paragraphs 56 and 57, in the work of the Conference, all the four core issues should be treated equally and the programme of work should be responsive to all the priorities.


AHMED UZUMCU (Turkey) said the draft report before them summarized the work of the Conference over the past eight months and it was accurate, factual and balanced. It would be practically impossible to cover all the points made by every delegation during the discussions. The Conference was not able to achieve what it aimed for, but it did lay the groundwork for the following year. Turkey hoped that no major changes were made to the report in order to allow a smooth transition to the following sessions of the Conference.

For use of the information media; not an official record

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