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September 28, 2005

On September 22, the 2005 session of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) concluded its ninth consecutive year with no agreed programme of work.

The CD held a closed informal discussion on September 20 to discuss the current CD President's draft decision on a proposal for a programme of work, CD 1757. This proposal, distributed to delegates the week of September 12, follows former CD President Ambassador Chris Sanders' (Netherlands) "Food for thought" non-paper, which was itself a variation of the Five Ambassadors (A5) proposal. CD 1757, which, according to Ambassador Mine of Japan, "did not command wider support after preliminary discussions", proposes the same four Ad-Hoc committees as the other two proposals (nuclear disarmament, negotiations on a treaty banning the production of fissile materials [FMCT], the prevention of an arms race in outer space [PAROS], and negative security assurances [NSAs]). However, it merges the A5's stronger language on NSAs with the Food for thought's weaker language on NSAs while retaining the Food for thought's specification of no pre-conditions for negotiations on an FMCT. Like the Food for thought non-paper, it has the same language on nuclear disarmament as the A5 proposal, and nearly the same language on PAROS, with the notable exception of removing the important phrase "including the possibility of negotiating [a] relevant international legal instrument."

Although not specifically related to a programme of work in the CD, Ambassador Park of the Republic of Korea took the floor to note an important development in disarmament and non-proliferation politics, the Joint Statement issued from the Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks in Beijing. Ambassador Park said this tentative agreement will “further strengthen the nonproliferation regime”.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) also took the floor to comment on the results of the Six-Party talks. Counselor An Myong Hun informed the Conference that the DPRK “will return to the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] and sign the Safeguards Agreements with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] and comply with it immediately upon the US’s provision of LWRs [Light Water Reactors], a physical basis of confidence-building.” He stressed the importance of “the US providing LWR’s to the DPRK as early as possible as evidence proving the former’s substantial recognition of the latter’s nuclear activity for peaceful purpose.” The DPRK is eager to see how the agreement on “action for action” will be implemented.

Counselor Hun also stated that the DPRK does “not have any need to keep even a single nuclear weapon if the DPRKUS relations are normalized, bilateral confidence is built and if we are not exposed to the US nuclear threat any longer.”

Turkey’s Deputy Permanent Representative Mr. Murat Esenli asked the CD “to continue with its efforts to overcome the stalemate and then embark on the expansion issue on a case by case basis with a certain criteria met by some candidate states.” (Emphasis added)

In the last CD session of 2005 with a high number of heads of delegations present, there were only four governmental statements, two of which were not directly related to a CD programme of work. Regardless, acting CD President Felix Calderon (Peru) concluded the final session of CD for 2005 by offering at least “meager comfort” to the delegates because they were able to adopt the annual report to the General Assembly by consensus. (See the adopted amendments to the draft report here)

Current CD President Peru and incoming CD President Poland will hold consultations during the First Committee meetings in New York in an attempt to come to consensus on a programme of work. The CD will then hold an informal plenary session on December 13th to report on any progress made during these consultations. The CD will open the 2006 session with a formal plenary on January 23rd, 2006, with hope for an opening in the impasse that closed the CD this year.