Sir, my presence here today comes at a time, which I would venture to term critical for the conference. And it is also two very clear and specific reasons. First of all it is our wish to restate the resolute commitment of Spain to the universal and multilateral character of disarmament and arms control that is represented by this body. Spain joined it in 1996 after many years on the waiting list and in the last twenty-five years it has strengthened its commitment to the various disarmament regimes for arms control and non-proliferation and this commitment is basically one of the main pillars of security policy. Spain in the past gave up nuclear weapons joining the NonProliferation Treaty in 1986 and all the entire structure of guarantees and safeguards of the international atomic energy agency including the relevant additional protocol and we are also since ratification on the 31 st of July 1998 a state party to the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty and we are the eighth biggest contributor to the budget of the organization established by that treaty. Moreover, by sovereign decision of our Parliament, Spain is a de-nuclearized territory, which in our view is a major contribution to stability not only in Europe and the Mediterranean but also it is an important contribution to general stability.

Speaking now from the regional point of view, from Europe's point of view, Spain has been participating actively in the huge remodeling of the security structure of the continent that has been going on in the last third of the twentieth century. The Treaty on the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and various mechanisms established in the OSCE especially the Vienna Document for conference building measures and the Open Skies Treaty and the creation of a common security and defense policy in the context of the European Union are constituent parts of a concept for collective security that has enabled us to reduce to a minimum the risks inherent in the overwhelming geopolitical changes that have been going on in the continent since the end of the socalled "Cold War."

Sir, the international scene we are witnessing is a backdrop for the efforts that we are deploying to continue weaving the international legal fabric for arms control. And this is going on at a moment of special complexity. Both the challenges that have arisen over the past years to the nonproliferation regime as well as the rapid evolution of various strategic visions condition if not impede the process of global disarmament. These are new inputs, new ingredients that must be resolved in a spirit of peace and security, which we are duty bound to pursuant to the UN Charter.

This is the backdrop therefore of the situation of the work of our conference and in the words of the Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in the words that he addressed to the conference at the beginning of this session, "the full use of the Conference of Disarmament as a negotiating forum requires the re-establishment of the necessary degree of harmony between the main actors. It is only then that the conference can maintain the balance between the priorities for disarmament of all member countries."

Despite the difficulties I think it should be recalled that over the last months various positive events have occurred of considerable importance including the holding of the millennium summit last year that should have facilitated the entire process of multilateral disarmament negotiations that we are concerned with. And more particularly should give more dynamism to the conference. I think also a special mention should be made of the conference for the review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2000. My country gives special importance to the final document, which enjoys special value since it was adopted by consensus among all member states because it really underpins the regime of nuclear non-proliferation and at the same time reaffirms the current effectiveness of its basic principles. It revitalizes the commitment of her states with nuclear weapons toward nuclear disarmament. Now among the practical measures of this document for application of Article VI of the treaty I think pride of place should be given to paragraph 3 in which the Conference of Disarmament is urged to take immediate action by starting negotiations on a non-discriminatory, multilateral and international treaty that would be effectively verifiable pursuant to which the fissile material for the manufacture of nuclear weapons and other nuclear explosive devices would be prohibited in order to be able to conclude negotiations in a time frame of five years. Moreover, for the Conference on Disarmament paragraph 4 is also significant because it urges that there be immediate establishment of a subsidiary body with an adequate mandate to deal with nuclear disarmament. This is something that we think of major importance for our work here. This progress we believe is of great significance but it is not the only one that occurred in 2000. We also welcomed the long awaited ratification by the Russian Federation of the Start H Treaty as well as the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by seventeen more countries. We also hope that the number of ratifications will be increased before the second conference of the states pursuant to Article XW of the treaty because the entry into force of this treaty must continue to be one of the greatest priorities of the international community. I think we should also highlight the progress that has been made in other spheres of multilateral negotiations such as the speeding up of the negotiations on the verification protocol for biological weapons convention. This is a must for the genuine effectiveness for the convention of 1972. The deadline that we ourselves have established for its adoption that is the 5th review conference that is scheduled for the end of this year must be respected in order not to lose the current dynamics. Indeed my country will continue to contribute by all means within its reach to achieve this very important objective.

Universal conventional disarmament has also been acquiring greater importance, which has been produced because of the consequences of a humanitarian nature because these arms are indeed very widespread in unfortunately very many conflicts that are going on today. The Convention on Especially Harmful Weapons also plays an important role and the possible adoption in the near future of the 5th Protocol of Explosive Debris of War will give this text even greater significance. But the Ottawa Convention has managed to bring about a regulations on mines that is contained in the former text prohibiting use, production, stockpiling, transfer and obliging that these devices be destroyed. Spain is a party to that convention and is very strictly complying with all its commitments including the destruction of all its mines. This was completed in November of the year 2000. My country is also cooperating actively in this area with the Iberoamérica

We cannot fail to mention in this context the importance of current initiatives to avoid destabilizing accumulation of small arms and light weapons. Along with the regional text that already exists especially the one that was recently adopted in the OSCE, my country is working actively so that the forthcoming conference of the United Nations on the illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects will give rise to an effective action plan, which will encompass the entire problem that is caused by these weapons.

Mr. President, despite these achievements this conference continues to be stumbling up against difficulties that we are all familiar with for resuming its substantive work. For my country sir the Conference on Disarmament is a unique forum that should enable all those countries that want to, to participate in the discussion and negotiation of regimes for the control and elimination of weapons of mass destruction because the risks that could be caused by these weapons are a common threat. Because of all this we believe that this is an irreplaceable body at the current time. Not only does it have as its assets the preparation of key texts over the last two decades for arms control that is the control of weapons of mass destruction such as the Convention of Chemical Weapons and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty but also in its previous format laid the basis for international collective security for the second half of the twentieth century attaining agreements that were so decisive such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

I'd like to take this opportunity to give our resolute support to the efforts that you and your predecessors have been making to open up new avenues for productive work in the conference. My delegation already said at the end of the last session that it was in full agreement with the proposal made last year by Ambassador Celso Amorim of Brazil on which further work has been being done in consultations in the last few weeks. This proposal is the outcome of many months of effort and presupposes a development of those that were made throughout 2000 by your predecessors especially by Ambassador Dembri and Ambassador Lint and its not only a good basis for the Spanish delegation on which we should continue to work, but we think that it is totally acceptable in all respects. However, not all delegations can share that view and therefore it is going to be necessary for you and we whose countries are members of the conference, to make every effort to bring about a program of work that will live up to the priorities that we have and which the international community at large has.

Mr. President, my country believes that the risk of exclusion and marginalization of this conference if it continues in this current deadlock is very real and would have very serious consequences for the entire system of multilateral cooperation if it were to continue. Therefore, my delegation will not spare any efforts so that as soon as feasibly possible we can come up with a program of work agreed by consensus, which will support you in the complex of tasks that lies ahead of you.

Thank you sir.