Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Unofficial Transcript of Statement to the Conference on Disarmament by Ambassador Johannes Landman, the Netherlands, 23 March 2006

Thank you very much Sir,

At the outset, let me express the Netherlands' satisfaction to see you in the chair as President of our Conference. We will do our utmost to assist you in making you Presidency a success. And even if there is collective Presidency, every single President has its own obligations to do his utmost, and I'm sure you will. And you will of course need all the support you can get and definitely it is important that we can make these assurances. Allow me also to express the appreciation of my country for the hard work of your predecessors, Ambassador Park and Ambassador Rapacki, whose tireless efforts have given the CD a new impetus. It shows that the CD is reaping already benefits of the innovative, surely difficult, but indispensable cooperation between the six.

Mr. President,

Under your leadership the CD will enter into focused discussion on a Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty. My delegation is looking forward to another series of constructive debates as we have seen in the past weeks when we were talking about nuclear disarmament in more general terms and a broader sense. As I have pointed out in an earlier statement, the Netherlands' government considers and FMCT the next logical step. They are definitely not the final step on the multilateral nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament agenda. An FMCT is one of the essential tools to tackle a number of issues related to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. As was agreed at the 2000 NPT Review Conference, an FMCT should take into consideration both aspects. The main purpose of such a Treaty is of course that no Highly Enriched Uranium and Plutonium is being produced anymore for use in nuclear weapons. This implies the ends of all military enrichments, processing and production activities. A second goal would be to enhance the safe storage and solid accounting of fissile material in order to prevent proliferation of nuclear material. Given the increased threats of non-state actors getting access to fissile materials, this in itself alone pleads for a swift commencement of negotiations and entry into force of an FMCT. To us, it seems even of vital importance. I may note that terrorism does not restrict itself to a limited part of the world. On the contrary, it is by now a global phenomenon. Therefore, it is in the interest of the entire global community, not just a handful of states, to start negotiations now.

I was pleased to be able to report to The Hague that many delegations that took the floor during the focused debates on nuclear disarmament also addressed the issue of an FMCT and expressed readiness to start negotiations. Many different views were expressed, however, on what such a Treaty should or should not entail. And as some of those views seem to be easily brought into line with one another, other views clearly exclude each other.

Mr. President,

Also for that reason the best way forward, clearly, is for the CD to start negotiations on an FMCT, and to do so without preconditions. Negotiations provide the best framework to find appropriate solutions to the differences of opinion I just referred to.

Mr. President,

The Netherlands believe that an FMCT is a prerequisite step to a world free of nuclear weapons, creating at the same time the momentum we need to tackle other issues on our CD agenda.

Thank you very much.