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August 30, 2005

On August 18, the Conference on Disarmament (CD) heard statements from Egypt, Finland, Japan, France and a brief farewell from Counsellor Ann Pollack of Canada. CD Rotating President Khan (Pakistan) also condemned the assassination of the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka as a criminal and senseless act of terrorism.

Egypt welcomed renewed interest in the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS), calling it one of the most important topics before the CD. To deal with the shortages of the legal regime on outer space and use "the joint heritage of humanity" peacefully, Egypt said a legal, integrated and binding instrument must be adopted, and it should prevent the weaponization of space and include matters of cooperation and assistance. Egypt supports the start of negotiations within the CD of a comprehensive system to stop outer space from being used for military reasons within the framework of a consensus programme of work for the Conference.

The longest serving Ambassador to the conference, Ambassador Markku Reimaa of Finland, said in his farewell statement to the CD that he is frustrated, but not too much, because he is "not supposing the CD should have an automatic role or mechanism in solving the disarmament problems of our time." He highlighted the CD’s inability to continue working on the Fissile Materials Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) as one of the most concrete disappointments, and identified the FMCT, the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the role of the CD, and the new civilian nuclear cooperation between the United States and India as the principle questions facing the CD.

Procedurally, he implored the CD: “Please do not give the impression that you continue waiting for something better before you engage in real work, and please do not give the impression that you need guarantees on what the final outcome of negotiations should be before you engage in negotiations!"

Japan took the floor to welcome "Nagasaki Peace Messengers", high school students from Nagasaki, joined this year by students from Hiroshima and Yokohama,who are of particular significance because it is the 60th anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He hoped "the international community listens very carefully to the message of these high school students," there to sensitize the world to the horrors of nuclear weapons, promote disarmament and advocate a culture of peace, "in order that the devastation caused by nuclear weapons will never be repeated."

France's Ambassador Rivasseau took the floor to bid farewell to Ambassador Reimaa of Finland, and advised the conference to take another look at the proposals from Ambassador Reimaa's tenure as the first Finnish President of the CD in March 2002, calling them not only some of the most ingenious proposals, but also some of those that came closest to consensus.

On August 25, the Conference on Disarmament (CD) heard statements from Egypt, Japan, France, and the outgoing CD President, Ambassador Khan of Pakistan. The meeting opened with the President bidding farewell to the Ambassador of Egypt, Naela Gabr, and Colonel Brossard, the military advisor of the Permanent Mission of France.

In her farewell statement to the CD, Ambassador Gabr of Egypt stressed that NGOs play a vital role in disarmament,and it is vital to encourage them to participate in order to highlight the human element of disarmament, and to ensure more creative approaches. She also advised the Conference to establish an annual high-level Ministerial segment to ensure the political importance of the Conference similar to the Commission on Human Rights.

Ambassador Mine of Japan discussed his attendance last week in Kyoto at the “United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues,” which had the theme of “The United Nations after Six Decades and Renewed Efforts for the Promotion of Disarmament.” Topics discussed included the last NPT Review Conference and maintaining the credibility of the NPT, the recent US-India agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation, the countries outside the NPT, non-proliferation, compliance and the role of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), and nuclear issues with Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 

At this first of five formal plenary meetings on a possible programme of work, Ambassador Rivasseau of France submitted a paper to the Conference on new and additional or “out of the box” issues. France considers new issues as essential to building consensus and therefore welcomed this meeting’s focus on new issues by distributing the update of a document previously passed out on August 5, 2004.

Pakistan closed the session, and its Presidency, by soberly assessing that once again “there has been no progress on the Programme of Work, and there is no indication from regional coordinators or individual member states that such a possibility exists in the near future.” However, Pakistan had received some useful procedural suggestions, including more support for extending the length of the Presidency and holding a second round of structured discussions on the four topics that had been discussed during the Norwegian Presidency.

Pakistan reflected that although the jury was still out on the CD’s future, there was a strong desire to preserve and promote the Conference as a negotiating forum and to ensure its continuity and effectiveness. Pakistan reminded the Conference that “it owed it to the world citizenry to save the world from a dangerous arms race, and promise them a secure future.”