UNITED NATIONS AND CHINA TO HOLD INTERNATIONAL DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE IN BEIJING
| Press Release DC/2825 |
UNITED NATIONS AND CHINA TO HOLD INTERNATIONAL DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE IN BEIJING
NEW YORK, 26 March (Department for Disarmament Affairs) -- On 2 April, the United Nations Department for Disarmament Affairs and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs will co-host a three-day international conference on “A Disarmament Agenda for the 21st Century.”
Tang Jiaxuan, the Foreign Minister of China, and Jayantha Dhanapala, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, will welcome the 38 invited participants, who will come from 29 nations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Participants will include ambassadors, senior government officials, scholars, experts from research institutes, parliamentarians, and representatives of several non-governmental groups.
The Conference will take place in the context of new international concerns over the prospects for past and ongoing efforts to eliminate weapons of mass destruction -- in particular nuclear weapons -- and to strengthen controls over conventional weapons. Hopes for progress in these fields have been overshadowed by growing fears of new arms races, global military competition, and other signs of deteriorating conditions of international peace and security.
Participants will seek to clarify existing threats and to explore new ways to overcome obstacles in achieving global disarmament goals. They will specifically address urgent issues on the international disarmament agenda at the dawn of the twenty-first century: defence doctrines; nuclear disarmament; preventing an arms race in outer space; and conventional weapons -- including the “revolution in military affairs,” confidence-building measures, regional approaches; missile proliferation and missile defence.
The Conference will take place at the Beijing International Hotel,
9 Jianguo-Mennei Dajie (http://www.bih.com.cn/). For further information on the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, see http://www.un.org/Depts/dda.
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