Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Algeria
31 May 2007
Unofficial Transcript

Thank you Madame President. First of all, my delegation would like to congratulate you as you take over the Presidency and pledge our to provide you with all the help and assistance you will need. We would also like to pay tribute to your predecessor, the Ambassador of Sri Lanka for untiring efforts.

Madame President, today we find ourselves in a situation which you described very well in your introductory comments. You described the feelings of pessimism and optimism which divide the delegations here. The Algerian delegation nevertheless remains optimistic and we still have hopes of L1 obtaining consensus which we need provided that delegations, all delegations, show flexibility and mutual understanding to try to resolve the issues and meet the concerns voiced by some delegations.

The delegation of Algeria had the honor on behalf of the Arab Group at the last plenary when we called for multilateral, transparent consultations on L1. And on that point, the Algerian delegation feels that it might be a good idea for the Conference to respond to that call we made by organizing official meetings on L1, formal meetings on L1, to allow all delegations to voice their opinions and to embark on an interactive dialogue in order to find a solution that we can all accept. Madame President, one plenary meeting per week does not seem to us sufficient. We have all the material and human resources we need to be able to hold lots of meetings during the remaining weeks and that is why our delegation would suggest that as soon as possible that the organized formal meetings to address L1- the sooner the better because time is not on our side. We would like to be able to adopt our program of work during this session and it might be a more desirable result for that consensus to emerge in the month of June.