'SECURITY HAS TO BE A COMMON COMMODITY WHICH IS ASSURED TO ALL', POLISH FOREIGN MINISTER TELLS CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT
Press Release
DCF/364
'SECURITY HAS TO BE A COMMON COMMODITY WHICH IS ASSURED TO ALL', POLISH FOREIGN MINISTER TELLS CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT
19990323 (Reissued as received.)GENEVA, 23 March (UN Information Service) -- Bronislaw Geremek, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland, this morning told the Conference on Disarmament that security had to be a common commodity which was assured in equal measure to all members of the international community.
Mr. Geremek said the most complex issue on the Conference's agenda was the issue of nuclear disarmament. Poland did not believe that the Conference should be involved in nuclear disarmament negotiations sensu stricto. It believed, however, that the Conference was mandated to contribute to a climate conducive to the success of bilateral disarmament talks.
The Polish Foreign Minister hoped that the Conference would lose no time nor leave any avenue unexplored in order to start in earnest a constructive negotiating process on a fissile material cut-off treaty.
The next plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 25 March. This meeting is expected to be addressed by Jaswant Singh, the Foreign Minister of India; Carmen Moreno, the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Mexico; and Rudiger Hartmann, the Commissioner of the Federal Government for Disarmament and Arms Control of Germany.
Statements
BRONISLAW GEREMEK, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland, said his presence at the Conference on Disarmament today reflected the cardinal importance his Government attached to disarmament which was an integral part of international security. Poland had always actively participated in the multilateral disarmament efforts pursued by the Conference on Disarmament. National security concerns were country-specific and might differ when looked at from an individual or a more aggregate perspective. The lesson was that everyone had to work with determination at all forums, including the Conference on Disarmament, to make security a common commodity, assured in equal measure to all members of the international community.
Mr. Geremek noted that international security was becoming these days an increasingly comprehensive notion. International security was indivisible, and this indivisibility of security was true not only in the regional, European context, but it had a global dimension as well. International security was no longer a zero-sum game and one could not procure reliable security for oneself at the expense of others. In the past, international security used to be the domain largely monopolized by diplomats and general staffs, but, fortunately, that was not the situation any more. Security today was inextricably linked to and identified with such shared values as democracy, prosperity, personal freedom, respect for human rights, market economy and the rule of law.
The Polish Foreign Minister said that it went without saying that multilateral disarmament efforts, especially those which were the focus of the attention of the Conference on Disarmament, played a critical role with regard to the global security environment. Due to conflicting positions on issues of substance or procedure, many "windows of opportunity" had been missed and this was to be regretted. The Conference needed a constructive dialogue as a framework for result-oriented endeavours on the most important disarmament issues. At the very least, the dialogue helped keep the negotiating expertise of the Conference intact and available the moment the political will of its members made consensus possible.
The most complex issue on the Conference's agenda was the issue of nuclear disarmament. Mr. Geremek said Poland did not believe that the Conference should be involved in nuclear disarmament negotiations sensu stricto. It believed that the Conference was mandated to contribute to a climate conducive to the success of bilateral disarmament talks. As far as Poland was concerned, the dispute over appropriateness or otherwise of a multilateral approach to nuclear disarmament ought to give way to sustained and effective measures to consolidate the non-proliferation regime.
The tortured history of negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty (FMCT) ought to lead to a serious and productive negotiating process, Mr. Geremek said. The threats inherent in the continued production of fissile material, or in the very real danger of pilfering of existing stocks by terrorist groups, were too grave to justify intransigence and inactivity. No time should be lost and no avenue should be left unexplored in order to start in earnest a constructive FMCT negotiating process.
Concerning the issue of weaponization of outer space, Poland believed that great care must be exercised not to interfere with nor to get confused by the myriad of vitally important uses to which space technology was put these days. Poland supported the proposition that an appropriate mechanism of in-depth consultations be agreed upon with a view to identifying the precise positions of States and the changes of a practical and realistic approach commanding consensus support. With regards to the Ottawa Convention on the
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total ban of anti-personnel landmines, Mr. Geremek said a global ban on transfers of anti-personnel landmines, which would take due account of the security concerns of States, would be a fitting theme for the Conference on Disarmament. A transfer ban would become a meaningful arms control instrument and it would also have the advantage of denying the explosive devices to non-government forces and terrorist groups for use in internal conflicts.
In conclusion, Mr. Geremek restated the importance which Poland attached to the Conference on Disarmament as the principle, indeed sole, multilateral disarmament negotiating body of the international community. Its potential had not been totally exploited nor its mandate exhausted. Poland was determined to continue bringing constructive contribution to the work of the Conference.
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