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Canada Statement
Delivered by Ambassador Paul Meyer
June 9th, 2005
Mr. President,
Let me join others in thanking you for your efforts as President
to advance the work of this Conference.
I appreciate the non-paper regarding PAROS definitions that has
just been circulated by the Russian and Chinese delegations. This
is the sort of substantive paper that we need in order to move work
forward in this important but complex issue area. As I believe we
were among those delegations remarking upon the desirability of
addressing definitions in the earlier Russian/Chinese papers on
PAROS, we are especially appreciative of their efforts in this regard.
Definitions or terminology is a crucial aspect of consideration
of PAROS, and certainly it is important for those who champion the
non-weaponization of space to develop common understandings of what
is meant by terms like "weaponization" and "outer space".
Our preference for doing this work, as our delegation has repeated
on many occasions, would be via a re-established Ad Hoc Committee
on PAROS that was an earlier feature of this Conference. In the
interim, however we should find other ways of accomplishing this
task. Last year a delegation suggested that an experts group on
PAROS be established to look at topics like definitions. We would
be supportive of this or of using a structured discussion in plenary.
My Russian counterpart in his statement expressed the intention
of organizing an open-ended working group to discuss the three thematic
papers tabled by the Russian and Chinese delegations. We would suggest
that he pursue this in consultation with the Presidency with a view
to providing the Conference with an appropriate forum in which to
consider and comment on these working papers in the manner that
they deserve.
Thank you.
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