05.02.04

CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT HEARS STATEMENTS FROM SPAIN, ROMANIA AND ITALY
The Conference on Disarmament this morning heard statements from Spain, Romania and Italy.

The representative of Spain, Ambassador Carlos Miranda, emphasized the close link between what was taking place in the Conference on Disarmament and that which was taking place in the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In the same regard, Italy’s representative, Ambassador Carlo Trezza, affirmed that the Program of Work of the Conference had to be consistent with the NPT Review process, which was entering into its final phase. Moreover, the two countries stressed the evolutionary nature of the proposed program of work of the Five Ambassadors; supported by Spain and to which Italy expressed that it had to remain the base of the deliberations.

The Spanish representative stressed the importance of the Conference’s ability to adapt to changes in the world, namely the end of the Cold War. The tackling of a new item should not replace the traditional items because they continue to be very relevant today and if a new item were to be taken up it would have to be consistent with the other items. The Italian Ambassador, in his part, stressed that the new questions should not divert the Conference of its program of work, which remained for it the absolute priority.

Ambassador Doru Costea, representative of Romania to the Conference on Disarmament, focussed his statement on the Reay Group Workshop on “Progress in meeting the aims of the Ottawa Convention in South Eastern Europe”, that took place in Bucharest on 2 – 3 February 2004. He highlighted the disarmament activities taken by Romania even before it became a party to the Convention, among them, a moratorium imposed in Romania on the transfer and production of anti-personnel mines (APLs) and Romanian engineering troops participation in de-mining operations in UN and NATO peacekeeping missions. The Ambassador added that Romania had planned to eliminate its APL stocks by March 2004, more than one year ahead of the deadline.

In addition, the Conference approved the request of Albania and Yemen to participate in its work during the 2004 session as a non-member State.

The President of the Conference, Ambassador Amina Mohammed of Kenya, indicated that its consultations on the questions of strengthening the participation of civil society in the Conference and the possibility of convening informal plenary meetings were not completed. "We are nevertheless very close to the goal", she affirmed. The President announced that the Conference would convene a formal plenary meeting on Tuesday, 10 February, at 10 a.m., to take a decision on these two questions. The Conference will thus hold its next public meeting next Tuesday, at 10 a.m.

Statements

CARLOS MIRANDA (Spain) began his statement by expressing his country’s support for the proposal of the Five Ambassadors and said the proposal had the capability of unifying the positions of the Conference members. If the Conference were to adopt the proposal today as a whole it would not be in a position to tackle and negotiate simultaneously all of the items contained in the proposal. The Ambassador noted that the Conference would be able to arrive at a balanced result through different paths and approaches. One possibility could revolve around a negotiation for a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) because there was already a negotiated mandate. On the other hand, the Conference could tackle the question of the Prevention into the Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS). This would only imply that the Conference could deal with certain items before others, such as Nuclear Disarmament and Negative Security Assurances, and without excluding the others, he added.

Ambassador Miranda stressed the importance of the Conference’s ability to adapt to changes in the world, namely the end of the Cold War. The tackling of a new item should not replace the ‘traditional’ items because they continue to be very relevant. If a new item were to be taken up it would have to be consistent with the other items. The Ambassador expressed his country’s support to have informal plenaries on various items as the Conference had already had, yet that in no place should dialogue replace the negotiating on substantive items. He also emphasized the close link between what was taking place in the Conference on Disarmament and what was taking place in the NPT, and recalled that in April 2004 the third preparatory commission for the NPT Review Conference would begin. The Review would take place in 2005. By April 2004 the Conference should have made satisfactory progress on the path that it was working towards.

DORU COSTEA (Romania) focussed his statement on the Reay Group Workshop on “Progress in meeting the aims of the Ottawa Convention in South Eastern Europe”, that took place in Bucharest on 2 – 3 February 2004. Romania’s initiative to discuss the most relevant aspects of the Ottawa Convention in a regional format was part of its policy and contribution to the international efforts that were meant to eliminate APLs and alleviate the sufferings by their use. Action was taken by Romania even before it became a party to the Convention: a moratorium had been imposed on transfer and production of APLs, Romanian engineering troops took part in de-mining operations that had been carried out in peacekeeping missions under the UN and NATO in Angola and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Humanitarian medical assistance to mine victims was also provided in the Romanian field hospital units deployed in Angola, Somalia and Kuwait.

One of the major achievements in disarmament was the significant and steady progress towards the universalization of the Ottawa Convention. In this respect, the South East European countries will report to the “Nairobi Summit on a Mine Free World” that one of the Reay Group objectives had been achieved following the depositing of the instruments of ratification/accession by Serbia and Montenegro on 18 September 2003 and by Greece and Turkey on 25 September the same year. Another important achievement concerned the stockpile destruction process which had been completed before the deadlines provided for by the Convention in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. The APLs stocks were planned to be eliminated by Romania by March 2004, more than one year ahead of the deadline. Furthermore, stockpile destruction was expected to start this year in Greece, Serbia and Montenegro and Turkey.

The Ambassador noted that, despite positive developments, much remained to be done in terms of securing the necessary medical care, physical rehabilitation, psychological and social support and economic reintegration. More efforts had to be directed for mobilizing resources with a view to balancing the current trend of decreasing funding from the traditional donors community for mine action and victim assistance programmes. The Ambassador further noted that the South East European countries participation at the Bucharest Workshop served as a good example for other countries throughout the world.

CARLO TREZZA (Italy) emphasized that the real priority for the Conference was an agreement on the Programme of Work. The statements and initiatives taken by the European Union last year, starting with the Thessaloniki Declaration, were a response to the new threats and challenges faced by the international community. He expressed hope that it would be possible during the coming sessions to address both formally and informally those issues and in particular “out of the box” items that could affect the programme of work. The Ambassador recalled a statement regarding the question of the destruction of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) through the “Cooperative Threat Reduction” initiative.

Ambassador Trezza noted that the “Five Ambassadors” proposals should be the basis for the Conference’s deliberations. He recalled the statement made on 19 December at the Conference’s open-ended consultations by his successor as President of the Conference, Ambassador Inoguchi, and her remarks on the four “core issues” to be addressed at the Conference. The four “core issues” were FMCT, PAROS, Nuclear Disarmament, and Negative security assurances. The degree of support varied on these issues and that should be taken into account when making the selection on the subsidiary bodies and on the schedule of the Conference. He added that the Conference’s programme of work should be consistent with the NPT review process, which was entering its final stage.

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