Unofficial Transcript
Turkey
28 June 2007

Thank you Mr. President.  Since this is the first time that I take the floor under your Presidency.  Congratulations on assuming the high position.  Through you let me also congratulate Ambassador Bonnier of Sweden for her tireless efforts for bringing the CD back to substantive work.  I am confident that you, Mr. President, along with the other members of the P6 will spare no efforts in continuing this matter.  I therefore pledge my delegation’s full support in your difficult tasks ahead.

Mr. President, as we have reached the end of the second session of the 2007 working year, we have a way forward that would be a historic end to a decade of stagnation and impasse, a path to meaningful work and a way to build a more secure world through arms control and disarmament.  In short, we are not at a loss of direction.  We have the products of debate and consultations.  This product, carefully drafted word by word by the P6 is the draft Presidential decision CD/2007/L.1. This proposal, which we continue to believe, represents an accurate understanding of the CD and the draft decision of the Conference.  We hope that these documents will allay the concerns of the delegations that have not been able to join the consensus so far. As stated previously by my delegation, kick-starting the efforts on L.1 will constitute only the beginning of the multilateral negotiating process.  This process will allow all delegations to express their concerns and alleviations.  Moreover, the commencement of this multilateral process will have an effect on other areas of multilateral efforts. It will create a new synergy.

Mr. President, my delegation is eager to commence negotiations as are so many others. Since this is the closest we have come to consensus for sometime, we call on delegations that are awaiting instructions from their Capitals to try to speed up their delivery.  Two weeks ago, the Secretary General of the United Nations, in a urgent message, that ‘Finding a fair accommodation now would deprive no member of the ability to assert special position in the phases of the Conference’s work in the adoption of the Presidential decision.’  We believe that Capitals should carefully consider this observation carefully.  We have a whole lot of work once we come back and we only have seven weeks to make a difference.   

I thank you Mr. President.