Transcribed Statement of the Ambassador of Hungary
Mr. Rudolf Joó 15/3/01

Thank you Mr. President. Mr. President it is a great pleasure to see you in assuming the important office of President of the Conference on Disarmament. At the outset let me congratulate you on the creative manner in which you have conducted out proceedings. I would also like to express the appreciation of my delegation to your predecessor Ambassador Christopher Westdal for his tireless efforts to bring our deliberations closer to consensus. I wish also to pay respect to the SecretaryGeneral of the Conference, Mr. Vladimir Petrovsky and his deputy Mr. Enrique Roman-Morey. Let me also express the gratitude of my delegation to all the Secretariat staff for the assistance they unfailingly provide to the work of the Conference. Also I cordially welcome those colleagues who have recently joined us and wish them every success in their work.

Mr. President, today the CD is concluding its second month of deliberations in the 2001 session without being able to adopt a program of work. Although we know that progress has been made on the successive presidencies as a result of collective efforts, the advance gained so far clearly has not been sufficient to reach a breakthrough in our work. We are still unable to start genuine negotiations. This is a deplorable situation Mr. President whatever the explanation of its fundamental causes can be. My delegation fully shares the view expressed in your introductory statement that current stalemate cannot continue indefinitely without damaging the credibility of this body. Among several useful proposals, CD document 1624 has indicated a possible way out of the impasse in outlining the composite nature of a future agreement. Like many delegations in this chamber we continue to see the Amorim text as a sound basis for the assumption of the substantive work of the Conference.

My delegation also aligned itself to the statement of the EU presidency, which exactly a month ago confirmed I quote, "The immediate launch of the FMCT negotiations as well as dealing with both nuclear disarmament and the prevention of an arms race in outer space within subsidiary bodies whose mandates shall need to be both pragmatic and substantial in order to be accepted by all, these three parts together constitute the basis today for an agreement to begin our work," unquote.

Mr. President, the resumption of FMCT negotiations continues to be a high priority for Hungary. Our standpoint has clearly been stated during the NPT Review Conference and repeated at the last session of the First Committee. The Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty is of critical importance to disarmament, nonproliferation and international security. The urgent need to commence negotiations was also confirmed by the final document of the NPT Conference. Therefore the start of these negotiations should be the next step on the way. Hungary supports all practical suggestions and initiatives, which can move the cause of the cutoff treaty into the right direction. For this reason we welcomed wholeheartedly the seminar on the verification of a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty held yesterday in this building at the joint initiative of the German delegation and of UNIDIR.

Mr. President, Hungary is committed to multilateral security arrangements. Therefore we strongly support the pursuit of negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament maintaining the unique role of this forum in international diplomacy today. With the same spirit we attach great importance to other nonproliferation and arms control negotiations, which take place outside the CD. At this point let me make a few observations concerning the activities of the AD-hoc group negotiating a protocol to strengthen the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention. Since Hungary chairs the Adhoc group, our special commitment to bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion needs no detailed explanation. Our assessment is that significant progress has been made to reach this objective. The results achieve so far are encouraging and make us believe that the group is in a good position to complete the negotiations in a time frame enabling it to submit the draft protocol for adoption relatively soon. This can be done at a special conference to be held prior to the Fifth Review Conference to be held in November-December of this year. We call open states parties to redouble their efforts to implement the relevant decisions of the Fourth Review Conference and make the political decisions necessary for it. Against the background of the stalemate in other multilateral disarmament fora, including the CD, the adoption of the protocol would gain even more significance by demonstrating the determination of the international community to counter the threat posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Mr. President, my country remains interested in engaging with other states to counter the humanitarian difficulties posed by anti-personnel landmines. Last year, Hungary cochaired the standing committee on stockpile destruction in carrying out the provisions of the Ottawa Convention. The support and the interest we received during the standing committee meetings encouraged us to deepen and further develop the international program of stockpile destruction. It was in that sense that last February, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, organized a regional APL expert seminar in Budapest. The topic of this seminar was the destruction of the socalled butterfly mines developed in the former Soviet Union and stockpiled in many countries of the region. Based on our experiences we believe that global initiatives in respect of anti-personnel landmines can best be implemented by securing cooperation at the regional level.. For this reason we continue to be committed to various regional efforts.

Mr. President, the uncontrolled proliferation and destabilizing accumulation of small arms and light weapons fuels regional conflicts in which civilians are increasingly the victims of violence. Illicit and irresponsive transfers in the region of conflict in Europe means increased danger to the neighboring countries as well as to the civilian populations living there. Large scale and uncontrolled arms availability hinders post-conflict recovery of states, slows down the process of stabilization and multiplies the cost of every peace effort. Hungary favors effective and widely accepted measures to prevent destabilizing flows of small weapons. We believe that concerted efforts are needed to develop norms, guidelines and practical measures covering all aspects of this issue. This includes among others, improvement of national control on the traceability of small arms, increased transparency, reinforced export control mechanisms and enhanced cooperation among national agencies at regional and wider international levels. In order for the current system to be more effective, we favor regionally focused approaches based on universally accepted principles.

Mr. President, the negotiations on the issues we have just mentioned are held outside the Conference on Disarmament. The challenges at those fora are also enormous and the international community is still awaiting their accomplishment. This fact obviously doesn't reduce the proper responsibility of the CD as the sole standing negotiating forum on disarmament. On the contrary substantive progress in any of the negotiations before could even underline further the imperative need to move the Conference out of the current deadlock. We do not think that the CD lacks good ideas and proposals about the way out. What we really need is the political determination to implement that. At this point let me reiterate our willingness to support all initiatives, which are able to bring the CD closer to consensus. I would also like to pledge the continuous cooperation of my delegation with all efforts aiming at the commencement of a genuine dialogue in this Conference.

Mr. President, I asked for the floor not just to confirm Hungary's position and questions related to the work of the Conference on Disarmament but also to take leave of this distinguished house. Very soon I shall be taking up new responsibilities as an international official in UNECO headquarters in Paris. Before leaving my position as Ambassador I would like to extend my thanks to delegations represented here in the Conference for their cooperation and the excellent relations we have been able to develop despite the short stay here in Geneva.

In conclusion sir may I evoke here a personal memory. Shortly after our accreditation here in Geneva, you yourself and I met by chance following a reception, which was held somewhere in the Palais. We were both looking for the way out of this building, roaming through corridors, which we were as yet unfamiliar with. As far as I recall after a bit of hesitation we managed to find the right way out of the building, which at that time seemed to us to be real labyrinth. Quite obviously Mr. President getting out of the vicious circle that the Conference on Disarmament has been stuck in for so many years now is a comparably more complex task. Nevertheless, despite a series of disappointments, there are many delegations which believe that there exists, that there must exist some way out of the labyrinth. As I take leave of the Conference, I sincerely hope that this forum for its own sake will find the way out as soon as possible. Thank you.