Transcribed Statement of the Ambassador of Germany,
Dr. Gunther Seibert 3/8/01

Thank you Mr. President. Since this is the first time that I am taking the floor during your tenure I would like to congratulate you on the assumption of a prestigious but daunting task. My delegation will fully support your efforts to move the Conference forward to productive work. I would also like to welcome colleagues who have recently joined us in the Conference. I look forward to closely cooperating with them.

Mr. President, I take the floor today to draw the attention of delegations to the meeting jointly organized by UNIDIR and the German mission on the verification of the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, which will take place this coming Wednesday 14 March. All members and observer states have received the invitation to participate in this meeting. Two years have gone by since the Conference established at the end of its 1998-99 session the Ad-hoc committee to negotiate a cut-off treaty although all states parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and FMCT negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament. We urge the immediate commencement of such negotiations with a view to concluding them within five years. After the decision of 1998, we all believed that the Conference had finally achieved a breakthrough. Many preparations were made for the expected intensive FMCT negotiations in 1999. Capitals prepared their negotiating positions and considered strengthening their CD delegations.

In the first part of 1999 a number of activities took place in Geneva on the issue of FMCT even though the immediate re-establishment of the Ad-hoc committee remained elusive. Several seminars, workshops and expert meetings took place to prepare the ground for later formal negotiations. However these activities soon subsided as it became clear that the Conference on Disarmament remained in a situation of standstill. We have already lost almost a whole year of the negotiating time. From this state of affairs we draw two conclusions. Firstly we must intensify and further our efforts to obtain a breakthrough and the immediate commencement of a work program. The German delegation will do everything in its power to support you Mr. President and your successors in all efforts to that end. Second, to avoid further loss of time we should resume active preparations for the negotiations to come. These negotiations will be complex.