New Zealand, Statement to the Conference on Disarmament, August 16th, 2007
Unofficial Transcription

Thank you very much, Mr. President, and could I echo the thanks express by the other colleagues to you for the work that you have put into the Presidency to bring the Conference on Disarmament to a point where we can commence our substantive work. I think that the farewell statement that Ambassador Meyer gave set very much the scene for the CD and the one which we need to look at issues liking to our work program.

Ambassador Khan from Pakistan said that sometimes there have been issues and matters on which has been disagreement, on which he disagreed with Ambassador Meyer, and then evidently that is the nature of the business that we are engaged in, but I think that all of us, if we are honest, when we read Ambassador Meyer’s statement would have to acknowledge the legitimacy of the points that he makes and a good humor with which he had presented the statement—rather sorrow than in an anger I think. It does provide a reality shock for us in terms of which we approach our future work, assuring Mr. President, that we do have future work and of course that is the issue that we continue to face in the CD.

I’d like to thank my distinguished colleagues form China and Pakistan for their statements with regard to their national positions. Certainly as the distinguished colleague from China said, there is clearly a requirement for us to maintain confidence and patience. There obviously are also limits to how one can maintain confidence, and I think that the level of confidence in any successful outcome does diminish over time, I think that is a natural consequence of a process continuing without producing a result and I think that there is an increasingly a crisis of confidence within the CD, in terms of its ability to get down to work, and increasingly a crisis of confidence is to whether we are going to be able to resolve the issues at surrounding L1. It’s very clear that L1 does command a groundswell of support, but there are several countries that continue to have difficulties with it. Clearly we do need, as it has been suggested, to give regard to the concerns for those countries that do have concerns, but there is also as Ambassador Meyer said in his statement as farewell statement, the matter of the collective good, and that ultimately, I think is what drives all of us here as the members of the CD.

So we very much hope that those countries that do have difficulties still with L1 will be able to bring us quickly to a point where we can actually commence work. We got closer to that point this year then we have for a long time in the past, but so far not close enough.

I’d also like to thank our distinguished colleague from Pakistan for the statement that he has  circulated in writing this morning and certainly we will be taking up the invitation that he has extended to us, to look at the full text of the press release issued by his authorities with regard to the week of the Conference on Disarmament.

I was very encouraged in fact by the extract from that statement that he quotes in his statement here to the CD, because in the second sentence of it we see Pakistan’s position in favor of nondiscriminatory, multilateral and internationally verifiable treaty. That position is entirely the same as my country’s position. The difference is that we don’t regard it as necessary to negotiate the outcome in advance of actually beginning the negotiations and we don’t consider it necessary to stipulate the parameters of the outcome of the negotiation, until we actually hit the negotiation, and I think that is something needs to obviously be reflected on further.

I was also pleased to see the reference there to the fact that Pakistan’s position takes into account the security of all states. That also includes the security of non-nuclear weapons states, those states that have not chosen to arm themselves with nuclear weapons, and who clearly have a very demonstrable national interest, and I would suggest that this is the collective interest of the whole. To begin work on an FMCT is a matter of nuclear disarmament, that is the basis on which I don’t think it is possible to overstress that point that an FMCT is an instrument of nuclear disarmament and that is the basis on which certainly my own country approaches this issue, also I know that other States that have not chosen to possess nuclear weapons also wish to address to this issue.

So assuming then that all of those security concerns can be weighed, those of the non-nuclear weapon states those that have chosen to possess nuclear weapons, if we can take all of these things, that we can quite quickly begin our work on an FMCT and move forward progress in this body and on this fundamental matter on nuclear disarmament.

I would once again like to thank my distinguished colleagues from China and Pakistan for the statements they have given this morning. I think, reading the details of these statements, there is in fact, a lot to give us confidence, but we will also need to move quite quickly or I think that the confidence that we do have left will be dissipated, and unfortunately they rather grim situation that Ambassador Meyer has described in the past may also be a legacy in the future, and obviously in the situation we will have to take quite some serious decisions regarding these matters.

I thank you very much Mr. Chairman. Mr. President, thank you once again for the work that you have done and the progress what we have made this year, the distance that we have come this year, is also an attestation of the effectiveness of the P6 process, I know that the P6 this year started the preparatory work very early, I think that has shown in the way which work was conducted. I know that the P6 this year actually started their preparatory work very early, I think that has shown in the way which work was conducted, as you yourself see it, each Presidency is a stage in the process, and there is a need to ensure continuity and certainly our delegation looks very much forward to the incoming P6 to operate cohesively as a group in the way the P6 operated this year, so is to ensure that continuity and to see the collective interest, thank you Mr. President.