CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT CONTINUES DISCUSSION ON PROGRAMME OF WORK IN INFORMAL OPEN-ENDED CONSULTATIONS
Press Release
DCF/388
CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT CONTINUES DISCUSSION ON PROGRAMME OF WORK IN INFORMAL OPEN-ENDED CONSULTATIONS
20000204Turkey Addresses Stalemate in Work of Conference
(Reissued as received)
GENEVA, 3 February (UN Information Service) -- The Conference on Disarmament this morning held a brief plenary following which informal open-ended consultations continued in order to break the stalemate on the programme of work of the Conference.
Ambassador Murat Sungar of Turkey addressed the Conference to express his country's concern with regard to the present situation. He noted that although there still existed different views on how to construct the programme of work of the Conference and on the substance of certain agenda items, this should not prevent it from establishing mechanisms on items which had already been agreed upon while deliberating on all other items simultaneously. He urged that every opportunity should be used to move the Conference forward to its substantive work by adopting flexible and result-oriented positions.
Ambassador Harald Kreid of Austria, President of the Conference, said that he had informed the group coordinators yesterday at the presidential consultations that they would hold informal open-ended consultations following the plenary during which he would inform them on the status of the options before the Conference. He would also seek the views of delegations on how to further proceed on the possible adoption of the work programme.
Statements
MURAT SUNGAR (Turkey) said he had the pleasure to inform the Conference that the Turkish Grand National Assembly had on 11 November 1999 ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). According to article 14 of the Treaty, Turkey was one of 44 States which had to ratify it so that it could enter into force. As a security-conscious State due to its geographical location where the risk of proliferation was comparatively higher, as well as its proximity to major regional conflicts, Turkey believed that the entry into force of the CTBT would significantly contribute to effective progress in the field of nuclear disarmament and non- proliferation of nuclear weapons.
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Ambassador Sungar said he wished to express his country's concern with regard to the present situation in the Conference on Disarmament. It was the common and shared responsibility of the Conference to address disarmament and arms control issues in an urgent manner. There still existed different views on how to construct the programme of work of the Conference and on the substance of certain agenda items. This, however, should not prevent the Conference from establishing mechanisms on items which had already been agreed upon while deliberating on all other items simultaneously. It was not in the benefit of the Conference nor of the international community to waste the past gains that had been obtained through a very difficult process. Every opportunity should be used to move the Conference forward to its substantive work by adopting flexible and result-oriented positions.
HARALD KREID (Austria), President of the Conference, said that he had informed the group coordinators yesterday at the presidential consultations that they would hold immediately, after the plenary meeting, informal open-ended consultations during which he would inform them on the status of the options before the Conference. He would also seek the views of delegations on how to further proceed on the possible adoption of the work programme.
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