Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Unofficial transcript
Belarus, Ambassador Mikhail Khvostov
September 8, 2009

Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you for the very kind words you addressed to me. First of all, I would like to welcome you in this post and to thank you for the untiring efforts you have been making in the leadership and the work of the conference in this concluding phase.

I would also like to express my great praise for the efforts made by the other presidents of the Conference on Disarmament – the ambassadors of Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Argentina, and Australia who with great professionalism and self sacrifices have moved forward the work of the conference this year. Thanks to their activities we have all seen a positive dynamic in the conference and in this session.

I would also like most frankly to thank the Secretary General of the Conference on Disarmament, Mr. Sergej Ordzhonikidze to whom I gave my credentials last week.

Mr. President, I would like very briefly to dwell on the fundamental approaches adopted by Belarus to issues of disarmament and international security.

International security, arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament - these have always been priority areas in Belarus’ foreign policy.

That explains why the leadership of my country decided to give up without any preconditions the right to possess nuclear weapons which Belarus had inherited from the Soviet Union. I think it is worth pointing out that the process of Belarus’s renouncing nuclear weapons and excessive conventional weapons was far from easy either politically or economically for us.

Reducing the size of our armed forces and eliminating our military arsenals took place in Belarus in a situation greatly exacerbated by Chernobyl disaster and its consequences.

In recent years, Belarus has become a party to all multilateral agreements and regimes aimed at reducing, controlling and promoting non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

For us, the strengthening of regional security structures is particularly significant both on the European continent and also in the Eurasian area as a whole. We take a positive view of the existing dynamics and the relations in this area with historic allies - the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. At the same time we are also inclined to fruitful dialogue and cooperation with our western partners, with the European Union and the United States.

Mr. President, returning to the Conference on Disarmament itself, I would like to point out that Belarus attaches great attention to activities of this most important multilateral negotiating body which has a significant impact on the activities of other disarmament fora.

In assessing the situation that has occurred this year, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand the adoption on the 29th of May of this year of the Conference’s Programme of Work thanks to the outstanding diplomatic efforts and the early approach of the Algerian Ambassador Jazaïry was for many a positive sign and a symptom of taking multilateral disarmament mechanism out of the dead end paralysis they'd found themselves in. We would like to particularly value in our opinion the fact hat the conference managed to achieve understanding of the need to move negotiations forward on non discriminatory multilateral verification of a treaty on the prohibition of the production of fissile materials which is also effectively verifiable. On the other hand, the unwillingness of the Conference to implement its own Programme of work demonstrates that we still have not managed to achieve the balance of interest in international security which would be the testimony to our willingness to actually start to move towards nuclear disarmament.

Unfortunately, while we are looking at which direction we should approach this process the world has not become a safer place. In fact, it is quite the opposite and challenges have become worse thanks to international terrorism and climate change. These challenges add to the traditional issues of the disarmament agenda and may significantly change the geometry of international security. In this connection in 2010 we will have no option other than to achieve consensus taking into account the views of all states members.

Today many politicians, public figures and citizens indeed are wondering why the remarkable achievements of the previous generation of disarmament diplomats have remained unfulfilled. They are wondering why every year the resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations on the activities the existing formal structures dealing with international security and arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament are not being implemented. It is up to us here to answer those questions.

Mr. president, allows me to assure you, Sir, that Belarus is prepared to take up the torch of the presidency of the conference in February next year and is fully aware of the responsibility we will bear as president of the conference in finding opportunities for progress.

In this connection as a member of the bureau of the p6 next year to support the efforts made by the conference in 2009 I would also like to thank you for the work which has resulted in the distribution last week of the draft report of the conference to the United Nations General Assembly which we hope to be an extremely well-balanced document.

Belarus continues to support CD document 1864 and we are convinced that that document should be a starting point for common way forwards next year.

Finally, we would like to express or willingness to cooperate extremely closely within the bureau of presidents of 2010 and our intention to build up our cooperation to that end starting this year.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.