22 August 2006

On August 22, Slovakia took over as the final president of the 2006 Conference on Disarmament (CD). Ambassador Anton Pinter outlined the schedule for the Slovakian presidency and the remainder of the 2006 CD in his opening statement. Delegations focused on how to use their work in 2006 to get the CD back into negotiating mode in 2007. The Netherlands, Canada, France, Morocco and Germany took the floor.

Most members want to see the CD build on its successful timetable of discussions this year, and move to negotiations next year. Slovakia hopes to overcome the impasse in the CD "through discussing and preparing a meaningful report" to the General Assembly in the coming weeks. The Netherlands also suggested ways to use the report to solidify this year's timetable of discussions (the Six Presidents, or P6 initiative) and develop a programme of work for next year. Canada, however, was concerned the report would be more administrative than substantive and called for a separate informal meeting to discuss this year's timetable and how to build on it next year.

The Netherlands and Slovakia seem to think the generally administrative report to the General Assembly provides an opportunity to assess the current initiative and solidify work for next year. The Netherlands said the report "could conclude that our programme of work for 2007 must be a manifestation of this year's debates: an arrangement which reflects the spectrum of issues and gives each of them its relative weight."

The Conference could quantify the number of meetings held, statements made, working papers submitted, and experts who participated during each of the debates this year to determine how to weigh this year's issues for next year's work. Counting formal meetings only, the focused debates on a Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty had the most participation in each category (7 formal meetings, 80 statements, 9 working papers, and 48 experts), followed by the second highest number of papers (8) and experts (7) in the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space debates and the second highest number of meetings (5) and statements (47) in the nuclear disarmament debates. Then came the third highest number of statements (23) in the Negative Security Assurances debates and meetings (2) in new Weapons of Mass Destruction and radiological weapons debates. A comprehensive programme of disarmament had the least amount of participation, and transparency in armaments has yet to be debated. (See Reaching Critical Will's table of participation in this year's focused debates at the end of this report.)

Slovakia, who is coordinating the report, said it should "prepare the ground for positive decisions allowing further development of the productive work in the Conference on Disarmament." The 2006 CD must go much further than simply "preparing the ground" and "allowing further development" if it is going to return to its negotiating mandate through a programme of work. It would be great if the CD can do this using the report to the General Assembly, but if not, it needs to take Canada's suggestion and hold a session devoted to "plotting the future course of this Conference." Slovakia currently plans to present the first draft of the CD report on Thursday, August 31, followed by informal plenary meetings on September 6 and 7 to prepare it. The last part of the Slovakian presidency will be dedicated to finalizing the report to adopt it by September 14, at the latest.

All speakers agreed this year's Six Presidents' timetable was a step forward that should be noted in the Annual Report to the First Committee of the General Assembly. The Netherlands, Canada, France and Germany all hoped for further steps next year. "Notwithstanding the improvements the P6 brought this year, a mere repetition of this year's timetable of activity in 2007 would fall far short of expectations," Canada declared.

France suggested the debates be more effective and negotiation orientated next year and that the CD make more active use of the Friends of the Presidents. Germany said this year has prepared the Conference to make the needed qualitative jump into negotiations soon. The Netherlands said ?it should be possible by now to make the proposed draft mandate text on an FMCT our foremost focal point in view of at last restoring this body?s position as a negotiating forum again.

Timetable for the last part of 2006
Slovakia presented the schedule for the rest of the 2006 CD. The Conference will debate Transparency in Armaments on Wednesday August 23, Thursday August 24 and if necessary Friday August 25. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will make a presentation on fissile materials on Thursday August 24 followed by an informal meeting.

The next plenary meeting will be held Wednesday August 23 when the minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina will be addressing the Conference.

-Jennifer Nordstrom, Reaching Critical Will 
Beatrice Fihn, Disarmament Intern

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom