Statement of the Ambassador of Colombia Mr. Camilo Reyes Rodriguez, President of the CD,
to the Conference on Disarmament 21/6/01

I would like to tell you that I have received an official communication from the Defense Minister of Estonia who is also Interim Minister for Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Mr. Juri Luik, containing a request for admission of Estonia as a full member of the Conference. As usual, copies of this communication were placed in delegations' boxes on Tuesday. This official communication brings the total number of States requesting admission for full membership in the Conference to 22. And in accordance with previous practice will be reflected in the report of the Conference on Disarmament to the United Nations General Assembly.

I would like to suggest to you that we suspend this meeting and reconvene it tomorrow morning at 9:30am. The reason for this proposal is that the consultations I've carried out this week indicate that the Conference is about to be able to appoint the three coordinators on which a decision was taken last week. My impression is that we are just about a few hours away from being able to make these three appointments. So if there is no objection from the floor, I would kindly request to you and again I would thank you for your flexibility and good will. I would ask you kindly to accept suspending this meeting and to continue it at 9:30am with the sole purpose in mind to try and take a decision to appoint the three coordinators on the three procedural items. A decision which was in this respect taken by the Conference on Disarmament last week. If there are no objections to this proposal it is so decided.