14 August 2008

During the 14 August plenary meeting, the ambassadors of Israel and Italy bid farewell to the Conference, representatives from Georgia and the Russian Federation spoke on the conflict in South Ossetia, and the ambassador of the United States, the current rotating president of the Conference on Disarmament (CD), yielded her chair to the Venezuelan delegation.

Brief highlights

-Israel offered optimism for the future of the CD and outlined its priorities for combating threats to international peace and security.

-Italy reiterated its support for CD/1840, the proposed programme of work, and for the proposed mandate on negotiations for afissile materials cut-off treaty.

-Georgia accused Russia of attacking its territory.

-Russia outlined the six-principle agreement on the Georgian-South Ossetian Conflict and explained how the conflict is related to the CD.

-The United States reported that despite productive informal discussions, no progress has been made on adopting a programme of work.

Conflict in South Ossetia
The representatives of Georgia and the Russian Federation took the floor to present different versions of the current conflict in South Ossetia, one in which Russia is the aggressor who violated principles of the UN Charter and one in which Georgia attacked the civilians of South Ossetia and its own territory. The Russian ambassador also reported that late on 12 August, French president Nicholas Sarkozy, acting as President of the European Union, helped mediate a cease fire agreement based on six principles:

-Non use of force.

-Definitive end to all military action.

-Free access to humanitarian assistance.

-Georgian troops return to their places of permanent deployment

-Russian troops to return to pre-conflict positions.  However, until international mechanisms are set up, the Russian peacekeeping forces will take additional security measures.

-The beginning of an international discussion on how to ensure lasting security in South Ossetia and Abkhazia

Bringing the conflict home to the CD, Ambassador Loshchinin said that two days ago during an informal meeting on Item 5 of the CD’s agenda, Transparency and Armaments, the Russian delegation argued that the UN Register of Conventional Weapons shows the preparations of Georgia for military action while data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute shows increases in Georgia’s military expenditures. The UN Register, as well as the UN Instrument for Reporting Miltiary Expenditures, are excellent tools for increasing transparency of and accountability for militarism that need to be better utilized—see Reaching Critical Will’s Military Spending Toolkit for more information and suggestions for action.

CD/1840
Italy’s Ambassador Lucia Fiori described CD/1840 as a “viable solution to resume substantive work at the Conference,” arguing that it is “realistic and balanced” and is “the result of several years of ‘negotiation on negotiations’.” She also argued that specifically, the formula for negotiations on a fissile materials cut-off treaty (FMCT), which is “without preconditions, demonstrates “the openness of the mandate” to address all delegations’ concerns.

Work of the CD
Israeli Ambassador Itzhak Levanon delivered his final intervention before leaving the Conference on Disarmament and Geneva. Ambassador Levanon said he is grateful to have witnessed “the outstanding efforts exerted towards resuscitation of the negotiation process.” Acknowledging that many are skeptical about progress in the CD, he argued that member states have demonstrated the “potential” of the CD to be an effective international instrument, which is possible if states respect national security interests and “work jointly towards creating conditions that would eventually allow general and complete disarmament.” He then explained that in the Israeli delegation’s view, “there are two fundamental threats to global peace and security that deserve to be placed at a higher priority within the CD—the threat of terrorism in all of its dimensions and the proliferation and transfer of weapons of mass destruction.”

Ambassador Christina Rocca of the United States welcomed the recent informal, interactive discussions on all of the CD’s agenda items, but noted with regret “that the enhanced exchange of views afforded by our informal meetings have, so far, failed to reach the third and I believe most important of their aims, to reach consensus on our program of work.” She said this is “all the more perplexing, as our discussions underscored the common understanding of the CD’s purpose, and the importance of substantive work on our four core issues, including the prompt commencement of negotiations on an FMCT.”

A brief editorial
It is perhaps less perplexing to those of us who Italy’s Ambassador Fiori addressed her final words to—those of us who follow the CD from the gallery. She said, “They are a testimony of the outside world waiting for the Conference on Disarmament to live up to its task: a more secure world.” We are waiting for the CD to live up to its responsibility, but unfortunately, we are no longer surprised when it does not. That is not to say we no longer believe in the CD’s potential or possibilities, or we would no longer watch from the gallery. But the threats to peace and security grow while the ways to address these threats—disarmament, diplomacy, dialogue—are undermined by the threats themselves—perpetual militarism, violence, and injustice. We recognize the underlying impediments to progress in the CD and are no longer surprised when, despite near consensus on rather simple proposal, the CD cannot reconvene its work after more than a decade of discussion. The world military-economic order does not work in favour of multilateral diplomacy, disarmament, peace, or justice. Until member states of the CD can break from this framework that shackles their “national security interests” to those of the world powers—whether in concert or opposition to those interests—what can we truly expect from this body?

-Ray Acheson, Reaching Critical Will

WILPF statement on the conflict in Georgia

5 August 2008

The rotating Conference on Disarmament (CD) President, Ambassador Christina Rocca of the United States, opened the plenary meeting and invited the representative of Colombia to deliver the only intervention for the meeting.

Brief highlights

-Colombia reiterated its support for CD/1840.

-On 31 July, Switzerland announced the five co-sponsors of the de-alerting resolution will table it again this fall at the General Assembly along with new co-sponsor Malaysia.

Ambassador Clemencia Forero Ucros of Colombia reiterated her delegation's support for the proposed programme of work, CD/1840, arguing that it provides continuity for the work of the CD in moving forward—which she described as complicated and difficult but not impossible.

Small arms and landmines
Ambassador Ucros highlighted the Third Biennial Meeting of States on Small Arms and Light Weapons held in New York last month, explaining that the final document adopted at that conference is a major step forward in identifying next steps to be taken for theProgramme of Action to combat the illicit trade in small arms. She also informed members of the CD of Colombia's new programme to combat antipersonnel mines that will cover 16 provinces in the country.

For coverage of the small arms conference, please see the Small Arms Monitor for daily reports published by Reaching Critical Will and the Arms Control Reporter.

Informals
In closing the session, Ambassador Rocca, reminded members that informal discussions on Agenda Item 3 (prevention of an arms race in outer space) will convene in the afternoon and informal sessions for Agenda Items 4 (negative security assurances) and 5 (new types of weapons of mass destruction and radiological weapons) will be held on Thursday, 7 August.

De-alerting
On 31 July, during an informal debate on Agenda Item 1, "Cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament," the ambassador of Switzerland delivered a statement on behalf of Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Sweden, and Switzerland on de-alerting. Ambassador Jürg Streuli announced that Malaysia has joined the original five co-sponsors of the resolution "Decreasing the operational readiness of nuclear weapon systems," which they introduced to the UN General Assembly in October 2007. He also announced that the co-sponsors plan to table the resolution again at this year's General Assembly and that they look forward "to continuing and deepening our constructive dialogue on this issue in order to build the widest possible support for our pragmatic approach."

The next plenary meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 14 August at 10am.

-Sandra Fong, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
-Ray Acheson, Reaching Critical Will