CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT CONTINUES THE WORK ON THE ADOPTION OF ITS ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE 2018 SESSION

The Conference on Disarmament this morning continued the work on the adoption of its annual report for the 2018 session to the United Nations General Assembly.

Beliz Celasin Rende, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva and President of the Conference on Disarmament, said that the Conference had made progress in the adoption of its annual report and that informal consultations would continue after the public meeting. The President then welcomed Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh, Permanent Representative of Iran to the Conference on Disarmament.

Iran assured the President of Iran’s full support and cooperation and encouraged other delegations to do likewise. Iran stressed the importance of producing a balanced, factual report, absent any politicized precedent-setting notions which could tamper the Conference on Disarmament’s long-established procedures and practices and adversely affect the overall functioning of the Conference. The Conference on Disarmament was the single multilateral negotiating body to address disarmament, and in particular nuclear disarmament as the single and most critical immediate agenda, Iran stressed and urged all to break the existing deadlock in the programme of work and in so doing demonstrate a collective courage, insight and dedication to the global cause of peace and security.

United Kingdom drew the attention to the joint statement in the name of 23 Member States of the Conference on Disarmament concerning the presidency of Syria of the Conference, in view of its repeated violations of international law, including the Chemical Weapons Convention and the United Nations Security Council resolutions. The text reiterated the concerns that many delegations had expressed in the course of the 2018 session, which they wished to see reflected in the annual report of the Conference on Disarmament to the United Nations General Assembly. The United Kingdom requested that the text be registered and circulated as an official text of the Conference on Disarmament.

Syria, commenting on the Note Verbale mentioned by the United Kingdom, said it included accusations pushed by powers outside of this Conference, “it is politicized and it has not achieved the approval of the certain important political powers”. Syria recalled that its presidency had been done in due process with the Rules of Procedure and with full transparency. The Joint Statement opened the door to criticize any country that assumed the presidency of the Conference for no other reasons other than political reasons well known to all.

Zimbabwe, speaking on behalf of G21, reiterated the Group’s support for the work of all subsidiary bodies of the Conference on Disarmament and stressed the importance of having the views of all Member States of the Conference on Disarmament reflected.


The next public plenary of the Conference on Disarmament will be held at 10 a.m. on 14 September.


For use of the information media; not an official record

DC18/44E