Statement of the Ambassador of Italy Mr. Mario Maiolini to the Conference on Disarmament 14/6/01

Mr. President

Since this is the first time that I take the floor under your tenure allow me to express the congratulation of the Italian delegation for the decision of today and its sincere appreciation for your sincere commitment in this task. We always seem bound by the legacy of our predecessors. In this case you are leaving a good and positive legacy. We are pleased that you were not discouraged by pessimists. It would be inappropriate for us all to talk like the protagonists of les ambassades who have the advantage of evaluating the present as a replica of the past. The good legacy you are finding comes from those who have the fantasy, and why not, the courage of proposing new solutions at a time of frustration and disillusion. Those people dare to try to interpret the wish of a silent majority in order to assert the principle that diplomacy is dialogue. It is dialogue amongst everyone but mainly between the main and among the main nuclear powers. Without dialogue the international scene is marred by tension and danger. With the decision of today we can start the dialogue on a minimum common denominator.

Mr. President,

It is known that Italy supports a prompt beginning of a program of work on the three outstanding issues on the basis of the Amorim proposal. Moreover, as we suggested three months ago, we suggested the idea of beginning to work on the four so-called non-controversial items of our agenda. Mainly, anti-personnel land mines, nuclear security assurances, transparency in armaments, and reform of the CD procedures. A growing number of delegations have been showing a growing interest in this proposal, which we understand remains still a possibility for the future. Notwithstanding a more ambitious program Mr. President we support, we fully support, your proposal in the decision of the CD of today. My delegation understands that the proposal accepted is the minimum achievable and possible first step, a first block on which to build a more substantial construction. The appointment of special coordinators on agenda, membership, functioning of the CD represents in fact a procedural instrument, which could as well, in our opinion, as in the opinion of the German delegation, be utilized for the other non-controversial issues. The recourse to special non-coordinators is in fact not substantive work but merely a procedural instrument useful when there is no consensus on a substantive program. Moreover. when we suggested to begin working before non-controversial issues our hope and intention was to see some movement in several directions in order to reach possible results in some of them. Possibly we could have seen that in a more mutual give and take process, concessions of some delegation on one aspect could be rewarded by concessions by other delegations on another item.

Now, Mr. President your proposal to concentrate all of our efforts in only one item of our agenda, a proposal, which again Italy supports, gives us smaller room for maneuvering and could make our tasks difficult. Let's begin our work with that awareness.

Mr. President, we begin our work with the cautiousness that since we have only one shot to shoot, we must not miss our target. Our observers might not be impressed by our attempt limited to the reform of the CD. However, they would be negatively impressed should we fail. This calls necessarily for a renewed effort by all delegations for a maximum of flexibility. With this in mind let me assure Mr. President of the complete commitment of my delegation to contribute to your success. We have to avoid the danger of having an empty CD, of having to apply to the CD, the words, ' the secrets of the Sphinx hide nothing' he liked to say. It's like the great pyramid with this decision. Thank you Mr. President.