Reaching Critical Will

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Conference on Disarmament

General Assembly First Committee

UN Disarmament Commission

Special Session on Disarmament

Unofficial transcript
Colombia, Deputy Representative Daniel Avila Camacho
17 September 2009

Mr. President,
allow me to begin by saying, as you have just given us this regrettable news, that the Delegation of Colombia would like to express its deepest condolences to Ambassador Akram on the passing of his mother.

Mr. President,
the Delegation of Colombia would like to acknowledge your professionalism and your dedication. And we would like to express out thanks to you for all of the efforts that you and your Delegation have invested during you presidency, aimed at achieving important progress in the Conference on Disarmament, including the adoption of the final report. With the support of the P6 I would like to seize this opportunity to acknowledge once again the leadership and determination of Ambassador Caroline Millar and her team for her enormous efforts also invested during her presidency to launch negotiations in this illustrious forum.

Precisely, Mr. President, we cannot, simply cannot set aside all of the work that was done by the presidents during the course of 2009 to achieve objectives and goals that had not been achieved for over a decade. Colombia considers that the members of this forum have now in hand important results this year that could be a solid work basis for next year. On the 29th of May last we all were able to witness how it is possible to have policies converge in order to be able to achieve and adopt a Programme of Work. We would like to express the hope that for next year we will be able to align the stars favourably so that we can begin our negations on the various items that are of great interest to all of us. We hope that this will happen as soon as possible to make the best possible use of timetable that we have available for the CD.

Allow me to reiterate once again to the Delegation of Bangladesh who will be assuming the first presidency in 2010 that it can count on the full cooperation and support of the Colombian Delegation.

Mr. President,
I would like to take this opportunity to refer to the second Review Conference of the State Parties to the Convention on the prohibition of anti-personnel mines, the Cartagena Summit, which will be held in the beautiful city of Cartagena de Indias from the 29th of November to the 4th of December next. In exactly 72 days we shall be meeting in Colombia, Cartagena, the purpose being to reaffirm at the highest possible political level our firm commitment against anti-personnel mines and in favour of all of the victims who suffer on a daily basis the horrific consequences of these artifacts, including all of the survivors, families and communities affected.

On the path to the Cartagena summit I am pleased to share with you that the governments of Colombia and Norway, with the cooperation of the International Peace Institute, have organised an event which is to be held at the headquarters of that institute in New York on Tuesday 22nd of September, that is next Tuesday, at 7pm, the view being to promote the Cartagena Summit and its main goals. We will have present there the Deputy Minister for Multilateral Affairs of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Colombia, Her Excellency Adriana Mejia. Also we will have the Secretary of State for International Development of Norway His Excellency Håkon Gulbransen and our President-designate for the second Review Conference, Ambassador Susanne Eckey. Invitations have been sent to all member countries of the United Nations, international organisations and non-governmental organizations in New York. We hope that we will be able to count on your participation, all of your governments and organizations and non-governmental organisations in this very important event that brings us even closer to our date in Cartagena de Indias.

Thank you very much Mr. President.