Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Statement by Ambassador Valery Loshchinin of the Russian Federation to the Conference on Disarmament 24th June 2008

Unofficial Transcript

Thank you Madame President

The Russian Delegation warmly welcomes you as President of the CD and we like to assure you of our full support and cooperation for the Russian delegation and we wish you every success.

Madame President
The Russian Delegation believes that at the winter session this year, the Conference did major useful work, the result was the draft decision prepared by the six presidents of the conference on disarmament on their program of work in document CD/1840 and indeed this is the result of major work of numerous consultations with all delegations and the logical conclusion of our efforts over the last period to normalize the situation in the CD. And we have reason to congratulate each other on this step forward.

Now of course, not everything in this proposal suits us and probably not other delegations are fully satisfied. We for example would like a stronger, more focused mandate on agenda item 3 which is a matter of priority for us which is PAROS. We, of course, would be interested in a negotiating mandate on a draft PPWT and the establishment of the ad hoc committee on PAROS. We have individual issues of a procedural nature; nevertheless, we are prepared with a view to be as quick as possible the resumption of the work of the CD not to oppose this document. We have already stated this in our national capacity and the same position was confirmed in the statement by the Eastern European Group at the beginning of this session. And the Russian delegation fully associates itself with that statement. It’s only by such steps towards each other that we can achieve consensus and contribute to the revival of the role of multilateral disarmament in the agenda.

Madame President
We are interested in seeing your consultations with members of the Conference and regional groups as you are prepared to continue them and being constructive and productive. However, we are convinced that in seeking the consensus on the CD’s program of work, this can also facilitate it by continued in-depth thematic discussions on all agenda items which were initiated at the winter session. We are convinced that this will be useful for the Conference and will bring us to a consensus on the draft program of work. In this connection I would like to support the president’s proposal to organize the concluding groundwork for this year’s session.

We are convinced that the discussions planned for the 5th of August on the matter of priority for Russia, that is, ensuring security in space, will make it possible to continue the discussion began this spring including the Russian-Chinese draft treaty on the prevention of placement of weapons in outer space, the use of force or the threat of force against space objects PPWT as well as the problems of transparency and confidence building measures in space activities. Of course, half a day is hardly going to be enough to discuss the aspects of the draft treaty including questions from a number of countries so in this connection, we would like to suggest, together with our Chinese colleagues, to all interested delegations that we continue the discussions the next day in August in an informal open-ended meeting, as a matter of side event or bilateral consultations with participating experts from Capitals. Russian experts will be ready to answer questions and make comments on the draft treaty, and we invite all to take part including experts from Capitals.

By way of information, I would also like to state that with the agreement of the Chair of the Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), the representative of a permanent mission in Geneva spoke on the 17th of June 51st Session of COPUOS in Vienna in June and introduced the draft treaty. This statement gave detailed reasons why Russia and China launched this initiative and explained the basic elements of the treaty and also gave detailed legal arguments on the key provisions. The reaction towards our proposal to begin real interaction between the CD and the committee on the peaceful uses of outer space on questions relating to this draft treaty were positive from most delegations and observers. The Bureau of the COPUOS and the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs are looking at alternatives for joint work in this regard. We consider the introduction of the draft treaty in Vienna to be a useful practical step in arranging joint work between the Conference on Disarmament and the Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in ensuring security in space,

Thank you Madame President.