Director-General's remarks at the Plenary Meeting of the 2026 Session of the Conference on Disarmament

2026 Session of the Conference on Disarmament

Tuesday, 27 January 2026, at 10.00 a.m.
Tempus, Palais des Nations

Madam President, (Ambassador Gerelmaa),
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to address you at the beginning of the 2026 session of the Conference on Disarmament. Let me begin by wishing all of you a Happy New Year.

The Conference this year is meeting amidst increasing geopolitical tensions and challenges. Recent and ongoing developments have the potential to have far-reaching implications for the multilateral disarmament architecture. At the same time, they serve to underscore the vital relevance and importance of the work of this Conference.

Last year, Member States made commendable progress in your efforts to reinvigorate this body. You were able to adopt a decision on the work of the Conference within the first two weeks of your annual session for the first time since 1996. This in turn enabled you to pursue some of the most in-depth exchanges we have seen in this body in decades on areas of possible convergences.

I commend the Presidents of the 2025 session for their dedication, leadership and guidance throughout the year. I also thank the Coordinators of the five subsidiary bodies for enabling extensive discussions on all items on the agenda of the Conference. Finally, I applaud the active and constructive participation of all Member States.
While it was deeply regrettable that it was ultimately not possible to reflect the progress you made in agreed reports, I remain encouraged by the shared willingness of Member States to seek an early resumption of substantive work this year.

I remain convinced that sustaining the practice of continuity in your work will bring the Conference closer toward fulfilling its function as a negotiating body.

Looking forward to your work on this, I encourage all of you to sustain the momentum you have been building since 2024. I commend the Ambassador of Mongolia and her team for their extensive and proactive efforts to facilitate an early adoption of a decision on re-establishing the subsidiary bodies, which I hope will happen this week.

Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,

In his address to the General Assembly on the priorities for 2026, the Secretary-General of the United Nations highlighted that we must build unity in an age of distrust. The Conference on Disarmament, as the single multilateral negotiating body on disarmament issues, can play a critical role in fostering such unity. 
I therefore urge Member States to build upon the solid foundation laid over the past two years and to work with renewed determination toward fulfilling the mandate of this body. The solutions you have the potential to develop through the Conference on Disarmament are needed now more than ever.

Together with my Secretariat, I remain fully committed to supporting all initiatives that advance the work of the Conference and reinvigorate this vital forum. I wish you great success in your work this year.

Thank you.