CD discusses enlargement of membership

Viola Giuliano | Reaching Critical Will
17 June 2014 

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) met on Tuesday, 17 June 2014. CD President, Ambassador Mukthar Tileuberdi of Kazakhstan gave a brief update on current discussions in the CD, in particular the issue of expansion of membership.Following consultations with the Informal Group of Observer States (IGOS), the CD President annouced the decision to appoint the Ambassador of Albania, Ms. Filloreta Kodra, as Friend of the CD President on the enlargement of the membership. Ms. Kodra will remain in this capacity until the end of the 2014 CD session.

The Czech Republic, on behalf of IGOS, and Bulgaria took the floor to welcome the decision. Both speakers expressed a hope that this appointment would encourage expansion of CD membership, a topic that has seen no progress in the last 14 years. After this brief discussion, the CD President then decided to move to an informal meeting to further explore the proposals made by Acting Secretary General of the CD, Mr. Michael Møller  on 20 May 2014.

Unfortunately, despite calls for including civil society from many states, such as Algeria and Mexico, the CD member states have decided not to allow civil society to participate in these meetings. As the only NGO present at the CD plenary, Reaching Critical Will therefore was asked to leave the room and is not able to report on any of the further discussions.

Next plenary
The next plenary meeting will be held on Tuesday 24 June 2014 at 10am in the Council Chamber.