1 June 2006

Ambassador Valery Loshchinin of the Russian Federation took over the rotating Presidency of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) at the plenary meeting on 1 June. Ambassador Loschinin opened the general debate today, but no delegation took the floor.

In his opening statement, Ambassador Loschinin again highlighted the timetable for discussions on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space which will be the focused item during his presidency. He also noted the four Russian and Chinese working papers (CD/1778,CD/1779, CD/1780 and CD/1781), and referred to a compilation prepared by the Secretariat on the issue.

The formal plenary then closed, and delegates went into an informal session to discuss the mid-term reports of the Friends of the Presidents (the Ambassadors of Sri Lanka, Algeria, Bulgaria, Chile, Italy and Japan).

The focused debate on a future international legal agreement on prevention of placement of weapons in outer space, and threat and use of force against outer space objects will be structured as follows:

Thursday, June 8, there will be a formal plenary meeting devoted to two issues; the importance of PAROS; and the scope and basic definitions of the future international legal agreement on the prevention of placement of weapons in outer space and the use of force against outer space objects. This will be followed by an informal plenary on Friday, June 9th to continue discussions on these topics.

Tuesday, June 13, there will be a formal plenary meeting on the issue of transparency and confidence building measures in outer space.

Wednesday, June 14, the Russian Federation has invited delegations, observer states and UNIDIR to an open-ended informal meeting in order to discuss three issues: ways to assure safety of outer space assets; the way ahead on PAROS in the CD and elsewhere; and any other business.

Thursday, June 15, there will be an informal plenary on the issue of transparency and confidence building measures in outer space.

Tuesday, June 20, there will be a formal plenary on the issue of new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons.

Thursday, June 22, will continue with another formal plenary meeting on the same issue, followed by a wrap-up by the Russian Presidency.

-Beatrice Fihn, Disarmament Intern
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom