Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

May 15, India
Unofficial transcript

Madame President, and the start of the second part of the 2007 session of the conference, I would like to first thank you and the Ambassadors of South Africa and Spain for their leadership in the conference. My delegation shares the sense of forward movement that is prevailing in the Conference this year. For India, at the current state of the CD’s activity, establishing a program of work remains top priority and we are supportive of initiatives that would facilitate reaching consensus on it. We are happy to note that the Presidential draft decision contained in document L1 focuses on this issue. You Madame President clarified in the plenary that the draft decision and activity together I quote “will for all practical purposes constitute a program of work.” For us, certainly, it does constitute a program of work. To ensure the smooth conduct of negotiations, there should be sufficient understanding on the parameters of the unfolding programs of work, especially on its substance. This is required so that we embark upon a successful venture and for a positive outcome of the substantive work that we hope to undertake in the Conference.

The true vocation of the Conference has been to engage in negotiations, to arrive at multilateral, nondiscriminatory legal instruments on the disarmament issues listed in the Conference agenda. The Conference has also engaged in exploratory discussions to precede negotiations such as identification officials, which is something that we carried out the whole of last year and the first part of the current annual session. As also a clarification of objectives on which an understanding amongst the constituents of the confidence becomes a prerequisite for successful negotiations.

Since we are engaged in that process now, it would be appropriate for my delegation to reiterate that on FMCT, we are attached to the negotiation of a universal, nondiscriminatory, effectively and internationally verifiable treaty and it would be desirable for this to be clarified by the Presidency in line with CD 1299 and CD 1547. To recall the non-president in Vienna was supportive of the mandate on FMCT contained in the UNGA resolution 4875L which indeed India had cosponsored. This support was reiterated by India at significant moments of the Conference’s deliberation on FMCT in 1995 during the adoption of CD 1299 and again in 1998 following the adoption of CD 1547. We sincerely hope that there is sufficient common understanding on the fundamental issue as we proceed to negotiations on the FMCT during the Conference.

Madame President, in order to protect the negotiating position of my delegation, it would have been ideal to engage in FMCT negotiations in a committee and not have negotiations presided over by a coordinator. You Madame President clarified in the course of our consultations outside of the plenary, that the function of the coordinators would be consistent to that of a subsidiary body and then subsequently you reiterated this in a statement that you made in the plenary. Since the coordinator could not be designated as such, as a subsidiary body, it might help very much if the clarification provided by you could be incorporated even in some reform in the complimentary Presidential statement. My delegation would encourage the Presidency to new consultations as indeed it is engaged in so that the Conference is able to arrive at a decision that takes into account the interest and concerns of all delegations. We have to go beyond appealing to the good sense and wisdom of delegations. It is only through this consultative process that the Presidency can engineer ideas that will persuade all CD members to arrive at a consensus. India will continue to participate constructively in the negotiation processes to reach on consensus for a program of work. I thank you Madame President.