Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Unofficial transcription of 9 February statement by Canada to the CD, Ambassador Paul Meyer

Thank you Mr. President,

Then please permit me to extend my congratulations and that of our delegation on your assumption of the Presidency, and I know your really tireless efforts to try and lead this Conference back into fruitful labors. In that regard I would like to make some additional comments on your statement and the timetable that you shared with us earlier.

First, let me acknowledge that I know that there was a great effort put into the elaboration of this timetable, and we definitely feel that the continuity that is presented by the six Presidential initiative is an enhancement to the way we approach our work here. There is a benefit in being able to outline for a timetable for throughout the year, and one in which...will be sustained by collective efforts of the Presidents.

We had expectations that this year would mark a new and qualitatively different year for the Conference on Disarmament. One that provided coherent, sustained, structured discussion and a far better use of the time allocated to this body. And in this regard, while appreciating this sketch, I would like to pose a few questions if I may, for clarification, because in some areas, frankly, it seems to fall short of that objective. And it may be that I’m not fully appreciating what is intended here in your paragraph 2, reference to focused structured debates that would be conducted under the auspices of the timetable. Because, on its surface it is an agenda item based general debates – one, frankly, that we’ve had many times already in this Conference and I was under the impression that we were going to build on what we had already done, and not simply repeat it.

I also had the strong impression that we would be making far greater use of the time available to this conference. And here, once more, I seek some clarifications, because it would appear on the surface that major issues like FMCT or the complex field of nuclear disarmament are being allocated one week for discussion – one week out of our entire year for these items? Will this represent the intensified labors that I think the delegations in this Conference expected to be undertaken in 2006? I mean, what will the Presidents do with the remaining three weeks of their Presidency if we are only going to have a week spent on this area? And how do we get beyond the general debate into the substance? We’ve had enough, frankly, declarations here – we need now to get into the substance underneath these items. And that requires specific topics identified ahead of time, so that delegations in consultations with their Capitals can prepare themselves adequately. Again, maybe this is still to be elaborated, but on the basis of the timetable circulated this morning, I don’t see that being there.

So I wonder if I might ask, and I should also note that under the Polish Presidency I see no further activity delineated. I mean, we have two full weeks, I think, left – I would hope we could have entered into some of this substance already under the initial Presidency. Could, if you are in the position to elaborate at all on this I would appreciate it, because I fear that on our first reading it doesn’t really seem to meet the, what I thought was the common expectation, that we would be getting into a much more intensified and structured consideration of substance this year.

I thank you.