CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT HEARS STATEMENTS FROM CHILE, GERMANY, ITALY, POLAND AND RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Press Release
DCF/325

CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT HEARS STATEMENTS FROM CHILE, GERMANY, ITALY, POLAND AND RUSSIAN FEDERATION

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 19 February (UN Information Service) -- The Conference on Disarmament this morning heard the delegations of Chile, Germany, Italy and Poland outline their positions on such issues as nuclear disarmament, anti-personnel landmines and the future of the work of the Conference.

At the outset of the meeting, Ambassador Erwin Hofer of Switzerland, the new president of the Conference, said that in 1997, after having gone through a first phase in which Member States put forward their positions and proposals regarding the programme of work, the Conference had entered a second phase of the identification of specific subjects. This had created the basis for a third phase which would include a search for areas of understanding and dialogue.

Mr. Hofer anticipated "a very difficult period, characterized by many risks". However, he pointed out that most of the subjects on the agenda enjoyed wide support and some were close to consensus. He would call on the creativity of delegations to overcome the last obstacles. The President could only stimulate the process, but the results depended entirely on the political will of the sovereign Members of the Conference.

The representative of Chile urged the Conference to start negotiations immediately on nuclear disarmament, and also supported the prompt establishment of an ad hoc committee on a fissile materials cut-off treaty. He suggested that the Conference create more or less permanent committees or working groups in charge of pertinent issues as a way to resolve the current deadlock. Special coordinators or "friends of the Chair", could be appointed by the President to consult with all delegations about a given agenda item.

The representative of Germany, too called for discussions on nuclear disarmament and a fissile materials cut-off treaty, adding that his country supported the immediate establishment of an ad hoc committee to ban the transfer of anti-personnel landmines.

The difficulties in negotiating and the obstacles to reaching agreement within the Conference were of an increasingly political nature, the representative of Italy said. It was time to find a minimum common denominator for success to be achieved by the Conference.

The representative of Poland focused on the issue of anti-personnel landmines and said that the pursuit of a global ban on the transfer of landmines within the Conference on Disarmament would represent an important step in the direction of promoting the broader objective of a worldwide, effective landmines ban.

The representative of the Russian Federation addressed the Conference for a last time prior to assuming new functions within his Government. He expressed the hopes that work on important issues would start within the Conference so that nobody would look back and consider this a period of lost opportunities.

Also today, the Conference admitted Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and the Sudan as observers.

Statements

JAVIER ILLANES (Chile) said that everyone agreed upon the fact that the main cause which impeded the Conference from getting out of this deadlock was the difficulty in reaching any kind of agreement about how to tackle the problem of nuclear disarmament. Chile considered the Conference on Disarmament to be of prime importance because of the fundamental role it had to play in generating agreements and regulations which responded to the legitimate expectations of the international community.

He said the Conference should start, as soon as possible, to address the important issue of nuclear disarmament. In this respect, Chile resolutely supported the proposals suggested by Canada and South Africa. Chile also favoured the prompt establishment of an ad hoc committee on a fissile materials cut-off. The Conference should also deal with the subject of negative security assurances. A balanced work programme should include matters pertaining to conventional weapons, where anti-personnel landmines clearly constituted the first priority for the world community.

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He reiterated an earlier suggestion by the Chilean delegation as a remedy to the deadlock in the Conference -- namely, the creation of more or less permanent committees or working groups in charge of individual issues. This might be a constructive contribution to the debate on procedural reforms within the Conference. The President could appoint special coordinators or "friends of the chair" without requesting the specific agreement of members, to consult with all delegations about a given item.

GUNTHER SEIBERT (Germany), said that his country was committed to the interdependent goals of nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. There was no practical alternative to the ongoing Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START) process. However, this did not mean that the Conference had no role to play in questions of nuclear disarmament or nuclear arms control, which were in the natural interest of all nations. The Conference could find ways to address these issues in a structured and focused manner.

He said that an issue which must be urgently addressed by the Conference was a fissile materials cut-off treaty. Substantive work should commence on this item, either in an ad hoc committee or, if necessary, a less formal setting. On the issue of anti-personnel landmines, the Conference could start negotiations on a global ban on their transfer. Germany was prepared to actively participate in negotiations on a global, complete and effective transfer ban, complementary to the Ottawa Convention. Therefore, an Ad Hoc Committee to begin negotiations should be established immediately.

He said that Germany would also like to see the re-establishment of the ad hoc committee on transparency in armaments, as the Conference was the most appropriate body to seriously take on all questions related to transparency on a global scale. The Conference must also considerably strengthen its efforts in the field of conventional disarmament. Germany was ready to accept ad hoc committees on any item where this was possible, and to nominate special coordinators where it was necessary.

GIULIO PICHECA (Italy) said that the difficulties in negotiations and the obstacles in reaching agreement within the Conference on Disarmament were of an increasingly political nature. He urged the Member States to find a minimum common denominator for the success of the Conference's endeavours. Italy supported the process of nuclear disarmament, with its final goal of achieving the complete elimination of all such armaments. In that respect, his country appreciated the spirit of the South African proposal, although it could not support the idea of a multilateralization of the nuclear disarmament negotiations.

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He said that Italy considered negotiations on the prohibition of fissile materials to be ripe. Therefore, the immediate reappointing of the ad hoc committee on this issue was logical. The Conference should also negotiate on the issue of conventional disarmament. In this respect, the initiative for a ban on anti-personnel landmines had acquired an eloquent meaning. Italy joined other regional groups in asking for the reappointment of a Special Coordinator on this issue. The Conference must keep focusing on anti-personnel landmines for moral and humanitarian reasons, and also in the interest of the economic development of large areas that must be cleared of these insidious and infamous instruments.

KRZYSTOF JAKUBOWSKI (Poland) urged the early reappointment of a special coordinator on anti-personnel landmines. He assumed that the overall general task of the special coordinator would be to try to explore and establish the views of the members on what the Conference could do to promote the broader objective of a worldwide effective prohibition of anti-personnel landmines. The pursuit of a global export/import ban on landmines by the Conference would represent an important step in that direction.

He said that the Conference on Disarmament had to address the issue of anti-personnel landmines quickly, because casualties increased on a daily basis. Negotiations on landmines within the Conference would make a useful contribution to other existing instruments, because the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons established controls only on certain landmine transfers, while the Ottawa Convention did not include many of the key States needed to effectively reduce the flow of landmines between countries.

GREGORI V. BERDENNIKOV (Russian Federation) took the floor to thank everyone, as he was leaving after four-and-a-half years as Russian Representative to the Conference. He believed that the Conference on Disarmament should resume practical work on the prohibition of fissile material and a prohibition, first, of the import and export of anti-personnel landmines, to be followed by a global prohibition. The Conference should also continue work on negative security assurances and on the arms race in outer space. It was essential to do everything possible to move forward at this time when there was no more cold war to complicate the work. Otherwise, if the situation changed and, God forbid, an outbreak of hostilities happened, the present time would be recalled as an era of lost opportunities.

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