SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES UNITED NATIONS ESSENTIAL ROLE AND PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY IN DISARMAMENT FIELD

Press Release
SG/SM/6443
DCF/318

SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES UNITED NATIONS ESSENTIAL ROLE AND PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY IN DISARMAMENT FIELD

Following is the message of Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the occasion of the opening today of the 1998 session of the Conference on Disarmament, which was delivered on his behalf by Vladimir Petrovsky, his Personal Representative and Secretary-General of the Conference:

It gives me great pleasure to greet the participants in the Conference on Disarmament as it opens its 1998 session. Less than one year ago I had the privilege of addressing you personally in order to demonstrate the importance I attach to this indispensable forum for multilateral disarmament.

As you embark on a new round of intensive deliberations, I would like to share with you some of the concerns and expectations of the international community in the field of disarmament.

The recently concluded fifty-second session of the General Assembly of the United Nations was rightly described as the "Reform Assembly". Member States and the Secretariat took major strides in the process of revitalization that all agreed was necessary if the United Nations is to lead in the twenty-first century.

In my programme for reform, I underlined the central importance of disarmament to the global agenda, and that the United Nations has an essential role and primary responsibility in this field.

While acknowledging the significant progress achieved in recent years to outlaw chemical and biological weapons and to strengthen the nuclear non- proliferation regime, I also pointed to the opportunities afforded by the end of the cold war to make further progress in the area of weapons of mass destruction.

In this regard, I emphasized that nuclear disarmament must be pursued more vigorously, particularly by nuclear-weapon States, with a view to the progressive reduction and complete elimination of nuclear weapons at the earliest date. At the same time, I expressed serious concern at the spread of various types of conventional weapons, especially landmines and small arms which are extensively used in regional and subregional conflicts.

I therefore proposed a managerial reorganization of the Secretariat capacities and a new structure to meet the growing challenges in the field of disarmament. I am happy to say that a consensus was reached on the re- establishment of the Department for Disarmament Affairs, and that a distinguished and experienced disarmament expert, Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka has agreed to head the Department.

When I addressed your Conference last year, I welcomed the positive efforts made at the bilateral and multilateral levels in the nuclear, chemical and biological fields. Since then, a number of encouraging and indeed historic events have taken place which contributed to further reinforcing these trends.

This past year, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has greatly strengthened its safeguard system within the nuclear non-proliferation treaty regime. The Chemical Weapons Convention has entered into force and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has been established. In the field of biological weapons, the States parties to the Biological Weapons Convention have stepped up their efforts aimed at strengthening the authority of this instrument by developing a verification regime to ensure compliance with its provisions.

At the Helsinki Summit meeting on 21 March 1997, President William Clinton of the United States and President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation reached an understanding to begin negotiations, once the second Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START II) enters into force, on a START III agreement, which would further reduce their strategic nuclear warheads.

In addition, they agreed on taking a number of steps to improve nuclear security worldwide. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) has now been signed by 149 States, and ratified by eight States, and the Preparatory Commission entrusted with the task of establishing the global verification regime of the Treaty is actively engaged in the fulfilment of its mandate.

- 3 - Press Release SG/SM/6443 DCF/318 20 January 1998

With regard to conventional weapons, whose devastating effects are being witnessed every day in regional conflicts, there is a growing awareness among Member States of the urgent need to adopt measures to reduce the transfer of small arms and light weapons. It is now incumbent on all of us to translate this shared awareness into decisive action.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Signing Ceremony of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines in Ottawa. On that occasion, I noted that disarmament, now more than ever, was recognized as a vital ingredient in the fulfilment of common security.

I hailed this Convention as a landmark step in the history of disarmament, and expressed my confidence that it will provide the final impetus for a universal ban, encompassing all mine-producing and mine-affected countries. It is now for your Conference, comprising all relevant States, to play its role in achieving the desired goal of ensuring universal adherence to a total ban on landmines. It is for you, finally, to rid the world of the scourge of anti-personnel landmines.

Your Conference, as an institution, has served the international community proudly in the past, contributing to the successful negotiation of major global disarmament treaties. Its potential for other multilateral negotiations remains a source of hope and promise for global disarmament.

Let us seize on the challenges and opportunities of a new era of disarmament to make it as lasting and historic as possible.

I wish you all a productive and successful session in 1998.

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