18 February 2004

Rhianna Tyson, Project Associate

This week at the CD, Malaysia, Myanmar, Venezuela and France delivered statements.

Venezuela's Ambassador Blancanieve Portocarrero delivered a brief presentation on her country's recent activities relating to disarmament and arms control. Venezuela has made significant progress in its de-mining campaign, as well as in the implementation of its small arms control law. It is also in the process of ratifying the Convention on the Prohibition of Certain Conventional Arms.

Myanmar Ambassador U Mya Than offered amendments to the A5 proposal, which, despite the wide agreement, has still not been officially adopted as a program of work for the stalemated body.

Under the original A5 proposal, the CD would create Ad Hoc Committees on the four main subjects: nuclear disarmament, Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space, and Negative Security Assurances. The proposal also calls for the appointment of Special Coordinators to solicit Member views on three other areas of importance: new types of WMD; a
complete program of disarmament; and transparency of armaments.

Myanmar holds the view that the simultaneous creation of Committees and Coordinators creates a linkage between the two. The Ad Hoc Committees on the four main issues are the priority, he said, and must "be liberated from the rigid framework of a linkage with the question of the appointment of the Special Coordinators. This makes it shorter, simpler, and easier to build consensus on."

On the issue of nuclear disarmament, "the highest priority for Myanmar," the proposed amendment incorporates "agreed language of the Final Document of the 2000 NPT Review Conference," the commitments of which, "have been called into question. to our dismay."

Ambassador Dr. Rajmah Hussain defended Malaysia from the "undue references" made to it in the U.S. President's speech last week. The speech has "offended" Malaysia by its implicit "question (of) the commitment of the Government of Malaysia on the issue of nuclear non-proliferation."

Ambassador Hussain maintained that the Malaysian company SCOPE is in no way "involved with an international network which supports the illegal production of centrifuges," as claimed by Bush in the speech last week. Although the U.S. statement notes that many other countries are involved in
the illegal network, "Malaysia has been deliberately singled out.thus tarnishing Malaysia's track record."

These points and others were also made by Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, whose comments of 13 February were also circulated as a CD document.

Ambassador Rivasseau of France noted his country's dissatisfaction with "certain paragraphs" in the decision on enhancing the participation of civil society in the work of the Conference which was taken last week. He asked for clarification on "the cost of the decision," and urged that the draft decision on NGO access be just one part of the general debate on improving the methods of work of the Conference.

Read the draft decision on NGO access here.

This and all other CD Advisories are archived here.