14 May 2004

Rhianna Tyson, Project Associate

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The Conference on Disarmament opened its second session of 2004 this week. Although the recently adjourned nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty PrepCom was unable to reach agreement on substantive (or even most procedural) issues, the long-stalemated CD began structured informal plenaries on substantive issues, based on a proposal from CD President Pablo Macedo of Mexico. 

Ambassador Macedo had proposed that the CD, which is in its sixth year without an agreed agenda, structure the informal plenaries based on the following timetable:

May 13: Cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament.
May 18: Prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters.
May 27: Prevention of an arms race in outer space (PAROS).
June 3: Effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon states against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons (NSA).
June 10: New types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons; radiological weapons.
June 17: Comprehensive program of disarmament.
June 24: Transparency in armaments.

In the official public session, only Israel and Myanmar took the floor. Israel’s Ambassador Yaakov Levy expressed ardent support for the recently-adopted Security Council resolution 1540 on proliferation and discussed Israel’s newest legislation on export controls of “materials, technology and know-how that could be used for the development of Weapons of Mass Destruction.” While Israel is not a member of groups such as the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group and the Australia Group, Ambassador Levy maintained that Israel’s export controls are based on these regimes and other international norms. 

Myanmar’s Ambassador U Mya Than expressed support for President Macedo’s proposal and noted Myanmar’s similar proposal of February 15, 2001 and endorsed the proposed timetable for these discussions.

After hearing the statements from Israel and Myanmar, the CD immediately commenced the first of these structured informal plenaries, discussing the first item on their agenda: cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament.

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