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The CD discusses its draft report and other matters ... behind closed doors

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) met for a very short plenary meeting on the morning of 7 September. The CD President, Ambassador Nkou of Cameroon, explained briefly that the CD would move into an informal meeting where delegations would discuss itsdraft report to the General Assembly in order to finalize it in time before the high-level meeting on 24 September. In the afternoon the Conference resumed its plenary meeting to hear statements from representatives of the Group of 21, Malaysia, the United States, and Chile. Unfortunately, civil society was asked to leave for the informal meeting and was not informed of the resumption of the plenary.

Brief highlights
- G21 and Malaysia called for convening of the Fourth Special Session on Disarmament (SSOD IV).
- Malaysia highlighted the importance of transparency and engagement with civil society in moving the CD forward.
- The United States questioned the feasibility of negotiating a nuclear weapons convention before a fissile material treaty.
- The draft report set the dates for the 2011 CD session: 24 January–1 April; 16 May–1 July; 2 August–16 September.

The draft report
The first draft of the annual report so far only contains a procedural record of what meetings were held, which decisions were taken and what papers have been submitted. As usual, there is no summary of discussions on the substantive agenda items or any explanation of the reasons for continued deadlock. So far, the draft report does not it include the reports of the informal thematic debates either. However, the most striking point of this draft is the lack any reference to the high-level meeting that will take place on 24 September. While the meeting will not have taken place yet at the time of the adoption of this document, the draft report does not even mention the official invitation from the UN Secretary-General to delegations to attend this meeting that is highly relevant for the Conference.

The high-level meeting
Representatives from the Group of 21 (G21), Malaysia, the United States, and Chile all reiterated their support for the high-level meeting. The G21 expressed its determination to promote multilateralism as the core principle of negotiations in disarmament issues. Speaking on behalf of the G21, Ambassador Sajadi of Iran emphasized the necessity of convening a Fourth Special Session on Disarmament (SSOD IV) in order to discuss and consider strengthening the disarmament machinery and expressed deep concern over the lack of consensus on this issue.

Malaysia’s representative voiced support for convening SSOD IV and the high-level meeting. While he noted that the high-level meeting would perhaps not be able to produce a miracle prescription to solve the CD’s problems, he still hoped that the political attention would revitalize and strengthen the Conference. However, he said that he was dismayed by the fact that the CD had yet not been able to agree on elements to be forwarded to the meeting in New York. He stated that it was hard to comprehend that the CD is not able to seize this opportunity, and that delegations allow themselves to fall into the same procedural quagmire that had beleaguered the Conference for a long time. He also hoped that the high-level meeting would look into the expansion of the membership of the CD, as well as enhanced engagement with civil society, since such actions might help create the necessary impetus for the CD to move forward.

Ambassador Kennedy from the United States argued that the meeting should be seen as an opportunity to reinvest in the CD. The Chilean representative said it would have preferred that the CD had brought about this high-level meeting itself.

Notes from the gallery: a nuclear weapons convention?
The G21 highlighted that nuclear disarmament remained their priority and called for the negotiation of a nuclear weapons convention. Ambassador Kennedy of the United States responded to this by wondering how one could deal with a nuclear weapons convention without first dealing with the issue of fissile material. However, Reaching Critical Will believes that since non-nuclear weapon states are already committed to IAEA safeguards on their fissile material and related facilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to ensure that such material is diverted to weapons purposes, the few states that possess nuclear weapons could avoid drawn out negotiations on fissile material by engaging directly in nuclear disarmament negotiations, which would encompass a ban on the production of fissile materials for weapons purposes.

Next plenary meeting
The next plenary meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 14 September.