High-level meeting announced

Beatrice Fihn | Reaching Critical Will of WILPF

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) met on Tuesday morning, where statements were delivered by the Group of 21 (G21), the informal group of observer states, Syria, France, Brazil and the Director General of UNOG, Mr. Sergei Ordzhonikidze.

Brief highlights
The Director General of UNOG, Mr. Ordzhonikidze announced that the Secretary-General has scheduled the high-level CD meeting in New York on 24 September 2010.

The President of the CD revealed that he has informally proposed suggestions that could open the way to agreement on a programme of work, and that the informal consultations on this will continue.

The G21 called for renewed efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament, and proposed a list of concrete steps, including negotiation of a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

Syria argued that Israel’s launch of Ofek 9, a spy satellite with a high-resolution camera constituted aggression and should be condemned.

High-level meeting in New York
The Director-General of UNOG, Mr. Sergei Ordzhonikidze announced that the UN Secretary-General has decided to convene a high-level CD meeting on 24 September in New York, as this was requested by the final outcome document of the 2010 NPT Review Conference. The meeting is intended to address issues on the effectiveness of the CD and how to promote multilateral disarmament in general. Mr. Ordzhonikidze also gave further details of the meeting such as a limiting its length to half a day, that the Secretary-General will chair the meeting, and that a Chairman’s summary will be produced. The invitations would go out to all UN member states, not just CD members or states parties to the NPT. In their joint statement, the group of observer states to the CD welcomed the high-level meeting and expressed particular appreciation for Austria’s support during the 2010 NPT Review Conference for amending the outcome text to include all UN member states in this meeting, instead of limiting it to CD members only. 

Progress on the work of the Conference?
The CD President, Ambassador Macedo Soares of Brazil, explained that his informal consultations would continue and noted that he had conducted over 60 individual meetings with delegations. During these meetings, he has informally proposed suggestions for a programme of work, in order to open the way for agreement by the Conference. Ambassador Macedo Soares announced that he is continuing the consultations in order to receive reactions and comments on his proposals. The Syrian ambassador, Mr. Faysal Khabbaz-Hamoui shared his conviction that the CD members are very close in their positions and that “the matter only needs some understanding and some mutual concessions in order to reach a programme of work.” Additionally, he pointed out that insisting on old positions would not be useful and would not move the CD forward. Both the CD President and Mr. Ordzhonikidze highlighted the importance adopting and implementing a programme of work by the time of the high-level meeting in September, as this would reinforce the deliberations there and provide more impetus and support for the Conference.

In addition to the many meetings with CD delegations that Ambassador Macedo Soares has carried out as CD President, the observer states expressed their appreciation for his initiative to convene the first informal meeting between a CD President and the observer states in recent years. Ambassador Phuangketkeow from Thailand, the coordinator of this group, stated that this meeting was informative and the high level of participation showed that the observer states are ready to be more involved in with the work of the Conference.

The issues on the CD agenda
Ambassador Hamid Ali Rao of India delivered two statements of behalf of G21, one on nuclear disarmament and one on negative security assurances. In its first statement, the G21 reiterated previous statements and positions, but also proposed a list of concrete steps that would promote the goal of nuclear disarmament. Such steps consisted of reaffirmation of the unequivocal commitments of the nuclear weapons states, elimination of the role of nuclear weapons in security doctrines, de-alerting and decreasing operational readiness of nuclear weapons, negotiations of legally binding negative security assurances, negotiations of a convention on the prohibition of the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons and negotiations of a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Ambassador Danon from France made a short comment where he regretted that this list of concrete steps by G21 had not once mentioned the negotiation of a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT).

The Syrian ambassador, Mr. Faysal Khabbaz-Hamoui, highlighted the Israeli launch of Ofek 9, a spy satellite with the ability to take high-resolution images of sensitive areas. The Syrian ambassador argued that it was a serious and aggressive escalation and that it showed a “definite desire” by Israel to proceed with an arms race. Ambassador Khabbaz-Hamoui further stated that such act was worthy of condemnation and that it was more important than ever to address the core issues of disarmament, including the prevention of an arms race in outer space, the militarization of outer space and the prevention of the utilization of space for launching acts of aggression or spying.

Notes from the gallery
One month after the NPT Review Conference’s call on the Secretary-General, the details about the high-level meeting in New York were announced. While a half-day meeting in New York will probably not be enough to solve the CD’s problems, it is an opportunity to raise awareness about the situation in Geneva and provide some fresh impetus to the Conference. If delegations would go to New York, not only for the high-level meeting but also for the First Committee of the General Assembly, with an adopted and implemented programme of work, it would send a signal to the international community that the CD still has a central role in multilateral disarmament. While the President’s suggestions for a programme of work have not yet been officially tabled, today’s comments on nuclear disarmament, NSAs, FMCT and outer space show that the diversions of priorities amongst delegations remain. So as the Brazilian ambassador is making a considerable effort to reach consensus, we hope that all delegations will show similar commitment and demonstrate enough flexibility for the CD to be able to start some form of substantive work on all four core items.

With only two more weeks of the second session, even an implemented programme of work would not be able to proceed much before it is time to wrap up and conclude the annual report to the GA. But through adopting and implementing a compromise, perhaps delegations can prepare the ground for real substantive progress in 2011, and thereby finally making the CD a relevant actor in multilateral disarmament again.

Next meeting
The next plenary meeting will be held on Tuesday 6 July at 10:00 am.