21 June 2006

Kofi Annan, Secretary General of United Nations, spoke to the Conference of Disarmament (CD) at the Wednesday 21 June plenary meeting. All regional groups, China, the Group of 21, the Western Group and the Eastern European Group, and the European Union took the floor and commented the Secretary General's statement.

Sleepwalking towards nuclear proliferation, or gaining momentum for disarmament?
Kofi Annan warned the international community that it seemed to be sleepwalking down a path where a growing numbers of states feel obliged to arm themselves with nuclear weapons-"not by conscious choice, but rather through miscalculation, sterile debate and paralysis of the very multilateral mechanisms created for confidence-building and conflict-resolution." After calling prioritizing either non-proliferation or disarmament over the other self-defeating, Annan said the CD "must devalue the currency of nuclear weapons".

He told the Conference on Disarmament it is the single group with the "collective power to wake the world up," and called on it to rise to the challenge by beginning work without linking issues to each other as they are in the popular Five Ambassadors' proposal. He urged the CD members to put their "differences and well-rehearsed arguments" behind them.

The Secretary General noticed that for the first time in a decade, the CD is working on an agreed schedule, with structured debates on key issue, scientific and other experts contributions, more intense and frequent meetings and that the Presidents of the Conference had made particular efforts to reflect the security concerns of all states.

"I hope that these steps represent the beginnings of a new period of productivity. It is long overdue for this negotiating body to abandon the all-consuming linkages that have dominated your approach in recent years, and get down to substantive work," he said.

Although China followed the Secretary-General's statement with reassurances that they are ready to start working, they reiterated their support for the linkages Annan just suggested abandoning when they called for a "balanced and comprehensive program of work."

The Group of 21 renewed their commitment to foster a consensus, will do their utmost to enable the Conference to start its substantive work, and called on the Conference to demonstrate flexibility in order to do so.

Although there are still important bridges to build, the Western Group said the recent progress gave the CD hope for getting back to work.

The Eastern European Group believed the signal sent by Annan's speech would "strengthen an atmosphere of constructive cooperation" so the CD could get back to work.

The EU saw the common platform created by the 6 Presidents of the Conference as a window of opportunity to move forward. "We can achieve progress with a combination of prioritizing, and at the same time allowing for a just and meaningful consideration of the concerns of all stakeholders."

All the groups thanked the Secretary General for his statement and hoped it would give impetus to the Conference.

The next plenary meeting will be held on Thursday 22 June, when the focused debate on Agenda item 5 will continue. As this will be the last plenary meeting of the Russian Presidency, they are also planning a summary report.

-Jennifer Nordstrom, Reaching Critical Will and 
Beatrice Fihn, Disarmament Intern 
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom