Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Unofficial Transcript
Australia
21 June 2006

Thank you Madame President. My delegation wishes to extend to your our sincere thanks for your considerable efforts to broker an agreement that would return this Conference to work. That we are coming so close to resolving a decade long impasse reflects the commitment you and your Presidential colleagues have brought to bear on your task. We commend you all for it. The L.1 proposal and the subsequent Presidential statement and accompanied explanatory document are the result of extensive and painstaking consultation. They represent a fair and just compromise by all. They may not be what each of us has wished for—that is clear—but it should be what we can all accept to ensure that this conference contributes to furthering our collective interests in strengthening international security.

Madame President, this Conference made good efforts towards restoring its credibility over the past 18 months. The focused discussions, first envisioned under the Polish Presidency of 2006, have sharpened our focus on the key issues before the Conference. The key issues from experts have allowed us to dig deeper into the issues. Most significantly, we have ripened our understanding of FMCT to the point where it is ready for negotiation without preconditions. Negotiation of an FMCT is the most practical step this Conference can take to address nuclear proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

Madame President, my delegation has heard many States, including those not yet willing to agree to L.1, to promote the virtues of multilateral arms control. We share their support for effective multilateralism, but the persistence and inability of forums such as the CD to attain meaningful outcomes threatens the very foundation of multilateralism.

Madame President, the credibility of this Conference hangs by a thread that would surely be severed by a return to the status quo. This Conference has been regarded by some as a club, but it is surely one that loses its appeal to States who are serious about their appeal to multilateral responses to fundamental problems in international security. We cannot expect states to remain in a body that fails persistently year after year to achieve even the most basic elements of its mandate. If we cannot proceed this year, we can envision that those remaining disarmament Ambassadors could be withdrawn, meetings will become unnecessary, infrequent, and poorly attended, and we would again get into the state of drift mentioned a few minutes ago by the Ambassador of New Zealand.

Madame President, let us be quite clear about what is at stake. We are in a situation which is not averted could result in this body existing in name only. We cannot and should not allow this to happen.

Thank you.