PRESS BRIEFING BY DIRECTOR OF CENTRE FOR DISARMAMENT AFFAIRS
Press Briefing
PRESS BRIEFING BY DIRECTOR OF CENTRE FOR DISARMAMENT AFFAIRS
19970129
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
The Director of the Centre for Disarmament Affairs, Prvoslav Davinic, announced at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon that Secretary- General Kofi Annan would address the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Thursday, 30 January.
Mr. Davinic said the Secretary-General's address during the Conference on Disarmament's sixth session, which ran from 21 January to 27 March, would be significant for three reasons. First, by addressing the subject of disarmament so early in his term of office, the speech would illustrate the importance that the Secretary-General attached to the issue. Second, he would be addressing the Conference on Disarmament, which was the international community's sole multilateral negotiating body dealing with disarmament. Third, it would give the Secretary-General the opportunity to explain his philosophy on disarmament to the international community.
The Secretary-General had clearly articulated his position that disarmament and arms control must be part and parcel of strengthening the international system of security, Mr. Davinic continued. Disarmament could not be pursued in a vacuum. It should be closely related to developments in international relations, particularly conflict prevention and resolution and the elimination of potential conflict situations. In his speech to the Conference, the Secretary-General would highlight those topics, as well as more intricate issues and specific actions.
Mr. Davinic said that the Secretary-General was not in a position to advise the Conference, which consisted of 61 States, including five nuclear- weapon States, and had the highest level of expertise, but he took the position that nuclear disarmament deserved high priority in the work of the Conference. His speech would acknowledge that considerable progress had been achieved in nuclear disarmament -- a notion some countries occasionally challenged -- and would urge the Conference to continue to contribute to the process.
In that context, Mr. Davinic continued, the Secretary-General was referring to the negotiation of an agreement to stop production of fissile material, an issue that was high on the agenda of the international community. Fissile material was an essential ingredient of any nuclear explosive device, and if its production was halted then the base for the further acceleration of the arms race and the production of new weapons would be reduced. The Secretary-General's message to the members would be that, while he was aware
of the intricate issues involved, the Conference on Disarmament should begin negotiations on fissile material as soon as possible.
Regarding the issue of nuclear disarmament, Mr. Davinic said, the Secretary-General's statement would refer to a Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), held in New York in April 1995. One of the decisions adopted at that Conference referred to the principles and objectives in the field of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. The Secretary-General would not go into detail as to how that decision should be implemented by the negotiating body. However, considering that 182 States were party to that Treaty, it should somehow serve as a guideline for the international community on how to approach nuclear disarmament.
Mr. Davinic said the Secretary-General would also discuss conventional weapons, another crucial issue in international relations. Without diminishing the importance of nuclear weapons, he would acknowledge that the status of conventional weapon negotiations met neither his nor the international community's utmost satisfaction. In his previous position at the United Nations, as Under-Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations, the Secretary-General had seen the difficulties that peace-keepers encountered in conflict-prone regions, particularly regarding small weapons and land-mines. The Secretary-General believed that the Conference on Disarmament should also be able to make a contribution in the area of conventional weapons, particularly in land-mine reduction. In addition, he would point out that the Conference on Disarmament should not be the only body to take up that issue. There were other initiatives being made by individual States that might take a different route and achieve a faster agreement in eliminating land-mines.
Finally, the Secretary-General would emphasize the role of consensus which guided the work of the Conference, Mr. Davinic added. It would appear that all the member States to the Conference on Disarmament and the Secretary- General believed that the rule of consensus should be observed. It was the best guarantee that the measures it adopted would then later command broad support from the Member States of the United Nations.
A correspondent asked if it was practical to emphasize disarmament alone, in isolation from other elements, considering that weapons helped establish a nation's sovereignty.
Mr. Davinic replied that when States reached an agreement by consensus, they -- in a way -- consensually gave up a part of their sovereignty. For example, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and of Their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Treaty), negotiated by the Conference on Disarmament, which would enter into force in April 1997, banned the production, deployment and use of chemical weapons altogether. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), adopted by the General Assembly in its last session, outlawed all
Disarmament Affairs Briefing - 3 - 29 January 1997
nuclear tests. The international community was now trying to determine how to contribute to the process of further nuclear weapons reduction, with the ultimate goal of total elimination. That would be achieved with the consensus of the participating States and, therefore, would not affect their national sovereignty.
Asked to explain the benefit of rotating the presidency of the Conference to all its members, Mr. Davinic said that if you asked the members who would preside over the Conference during the next two months, they would offer many different reasons as to why it was the correct way to proceed. Historically, the practice originated when disarmament negotiations involved the United States, the former Soviet Union and the non-aligned countries. The rule, established to give equal treatment politically to all three groups, had now been expanded to include all 61 States. Maybe the Conference would reconsider the approach, but it was also an expression of the democratic rules of the Conference.
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