23 August 2006

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) started their focused debate on Transparency in Armaments (TIA) on 23 August. Slovakia,Argentina, the United States, Japan, Italy, Russian Federation, India, Germany, the Netherlands and China made statements.

Transparency in Armaments (TIA)
The President of the CD, Slovakian Ambassador Anton Pinter, made a short introduction to the issue. TIA was originally initiated in the CD at the request of the General Assembly resolution 46/36 (December 1991) which established the UN Register of Conventional Arms and called for the CD to address transparency in armaments.

United Nations Register of Conventional Arms
The United Nations Register of Conventional Arms was created as an early warning mechanism marking trends in the war equipment of States. Several speakers said it has become an effective instrument to promote understanding between states and to prevent destabilizing surprises in international peace and security. It currently covers 97% of conventional arms trade, and averages over 100 registering countries per year. 170 countries have registered at least once.

In 2003 and 2006, Argentinean Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Roberto Garcia Moritan, chaired the Governmental Group of Experts (GGE) that reviews the Register. Ambassader Garcia-Moritan highlighted progress made during the reviews, as did the Netherlands and Japan, and called the Register one of the most important global confidence-building measures.

The Governmental Group of Experts recently recommended the Register only apply to United Nations Members (therefore excluding Taiwan and Palestine), which means China will again contribute to it. It also expanded the category of warships and submarines (category 6) to include naval vessels armed with missiles or torpedoes. They also widened the scope of the missile and missile launchers category to include Man Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS), and agreed to a standardized form for notification of transfers of small arms and light weapons. The Netherlands will soon table their triennial UN General Assembly resolution on transparency in armaments to secure a mandate for the next Group of Experts to review and further develop the UN Register in 2009.

Argentina, Japan, Russia and the United States supported universalizing the Register to enhance its effectiveness in building confidence. China said it will contribute to the Register again once a "certain country" stops registering its arms trade to Taiwan. India said there should be adjustments to the categories of arms covered in the Register to make it more relevant to security concerns of states and would have liked greater progress in Small Arms and Light Weapons category in the Register.

Other measures: Arms Trade Treaty and Military Expenditures
Argentina and Japan also discussed the upcoming Arms Trade Treaty resolution, which they are co-sponsoring at the 2006 General Assembly's First Committee in October. Japan sees "assuring responsible transfers of arms through the ATT, and registering them in accordance with the UN Register" as mutually reinforcing measures. Argentina said the conditions are now appropriate to ensure arms transfers take place in accordance with international law.

Russia discussed an arms trade treaty in the context of Article 51 of the UN Charter on the right of self-defense, saying "we can not be guided by the criteria that could be arbitrarily constructed."

Germany highlighted the other main UN transparency instrument, the Standardised Instrument for Reporting Military Expenditures, on which Germany sponsors a biennial General Assembly resolution, as an important transparency tool. To date, over 115 governments have participated in the process, but Germany appealed to them to participate consistently.

TIA in the CD
The CD appointed a Special Coordinator in 1992 to consult member states on transparency in armaments and established an Ad Hoc Committee in 1993. This Ad Hoc Committee was not reestablished in 1995 due to "the divergence of views on the duration of the mandate of the Ad Hoc Committee," according to Slovakia. The United States remarked "Unfortunately, the ad hoc committee split into two camps - those who wanted to discuss transparency in conventional weapons and those who wanted to discuss transparency in weapons of mass destruction." The United States blames this split as the origin of the current CD deadlock.

The US, who sent a State Department official to address the CD on this issue, was "disappointed that TIA over the years has been moved to the proverbial back burner in discussions about the CD?s work program." Japan suggested two steps to improve the CD's work on TIA: first, to seriously study and follow the on-going activities made at the global, regional and national levels, and to identify problems which require more action; second, to establish, in the future, a feed-back mechanism on the achievements of each global, regional and national forum.

Germany and Russia again declared they would not object to consensus on a program of work on the basis of the Five Ambassadors' proposal, which would include the appointment of a Special Coordinator on Agenda item 7. Italy said simply "transparency in armaments is one of the items of the CD Agenda and the Italian Delegation is ready to address it at this stage."

Argentina also declared its flexibility on how to identify and ultimately adopt additional measures to advance the Transparency of Weapons or any other agenda item.

Italy argued that transparency is also needed for weapons of mass destruction, not only for conventional weapons. Ambassador Carlo Trezza said publications like the SIPRI Yearbook and the ITSS Military balance were invaluable for their work, but official state declarations are even more important.

China, Russia and India expressed reservations about total transparency in armaments, insisting on voluntary reporting with respect for security concerns of states. China also opposed uniform transparency levels and measures, since each country should decide on its TIA measures voluntarily in the light of its own specific situation. India said ?measures to promote transparency in armaments at the regional and sub-regional levels should take into account the specific characteristics of the region and strive to enhance the security of States and build confidence among them.

The next plenary meeting will be held Thursday 24 August, when the International Atomic Energy Agency will make a presentation on fissile materials and the debate on Transparency in Armaments will continue.

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

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom