First Committee Speaker Says Gridlock in Disarmament Machinery Due to ‘Relentless Pursuit of Military Dominance’
The disarmament machinery is an essential part of the toolkit for putting good ideas into action, building consensus, bridging divisions and doing the hard work required to achieve and maintain a safer world, Australia’s delegate told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), which today concluded its thematic debate on disarmament machinery and opened its deliberations on outer space.
“We are all custodians of the UN disarmament architecture,” the representative said. “We need to use it wisely, nurture it and find ways to improve its effectiveness.” He also urged States to reinforce existing tools, namely, the Disarmament Commission and the Conference on Disarmament. Noting that the Conference has been unable to commence negotiations in more than two decades, Australia wants it focused on substance, ideally substantive negotiations. “Our priority is for negotiation on a fissile material cut-off treaty,” he stressed, encouraging States to consider a narrower focus on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament discussions.
Pakistan’s representative said the stalemate afflicting the multilateral disarmament machinery is both a cause and function of competing strategic priorities, the relentless pursuit of maintaining military advantages and dominance and the pursuit of discriminatory policies by some States. “Currently, the level of trust and understanding among States to negotiate arms control rules is even lower than during the cold war.”
With conflicts raging in many parts of the world and festering long-standing disputes, the strategic environment has deteriorated further, he said. No wonder, States are unable to negotiate on matters that directly pertain to their security, he said, adding that changing working practices will not affect the national security calculus of States, on which they base certain positions. Therefore, trying to find a procedural fix for a substantive security problem will not break this logjam.
Similarly, the delegate for Austria said, “in its current state, what we call disarmament machinery is neither effective nor flexible and certainly does not reflect a machinery”. Instead, it is a mirror of the decreasing will by some to seek multilateral solutions and the wish to maintain an outdated status quo which ignores the ever-louder voices and concerns about the security interests, not just of some but of everyone.
She said this crisis concerns the long-standing stalemate within the Conference on Disarmament, which has failed to produce any substantive work since the negotiation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). She sees similar problems in most other disarmament and non-proliferation forums, exceedingly serious in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
In the same vein, the representative of the United States said “defying expectations” the much-maligned disarmament machinery produced some modest successes over the past year. There “emerged a collective willingness to take positive steps forward” despite a worsening geopolitical situation. In the Conference on Disarmament, for example, a consensus decision on establishing subsidiary bodies was achieved.
He said that the current disarmament machinery can enable progress as long as States engage constructively and in good faith. Modest adjustments and practices that make improvements are fully achievable within existing rules of procedure. Failure to make progress should not be blamed on the disarmament machinery itself.
Today's geopolitical landscape, said the speaker for the Netherlands, is a complex web of dynamic and occasionally competing interests. “As geopolitical divides deepen, the momentum for arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation wanes — just when we need it most.” Advancements in new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons systems, and their convergence with existing ones, are setting the contours for new arms races. At the same time, the erosion of existing agreements risk reigniting old ones. The global community must vigorously protect existing arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation agreements and evolve new norms, principles and rules in novel and emerging domains, he emphasized.
The Conference on Disarmament keeps breaking its own dismal record every year, Norway’s speaker noted. “It has not fulfilled its negotiating mandate since the CTBT in 1996. Instead, months are spent every year on negotiating the programme of work, which ultimately ends up not being agreed,” he said, noting that 17 UN Member States were not granted observer status this year, which violates the core tenet of multilateralism.
Italy’s delegate also regrets that observers were blocked this year by the Russian Federation from participating in the Conference on Disarmament, which counters the principle of inclusivity and the multilateral method that should guide this work.
He is deeply concerned at the continued erosion of the international arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation architecture. The Russian Federation is “systematically attacking the multilateral system” — the same system that in the past, even during the cold war, it had contributed to building. After its brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with every single decision, the Russian Federation “has chipped away at the disarmament architecture”. Fortunately, the vast majority of UN Member States have a different approach, as the final phases of the negotiations of the Pact for the Future amply demonstrated.
The delegate for Egypt is committed to an effective UN disarmament machinery, as essential to preserving international peace and security. However, he said, the stalemate in disarmament is not attributable to the machinery itself as much as it is a reflection of “a lack of political will of some States that seek to maintain and further reinforce absolute military dominance”, justified by outdated doctrines on deterrence and strategic stability, among others.
For Mexico, said its delegate, it is clear that the gridlock in the negotiations within the framework of the multilateral disarmament machinery is due to the lack of political will of certain countries, which makes it necessary to redouble multilateral efforts. The veto power in the Conference on Disarmament contributes directly to the impasse of this forum, serving the interests of a few States. The Conference has chosen to keep itself busy, simulating activities, he stressed.
Slovenia’s delegate said her country has participated in the Conference as observer since 1992 but has been unable to engage in its work due to a veto by the Russian Federation against the participation of observers from the European Union and its candidate countries. “This is a clear violation of the UN Charter and undermines the principle of sovereign equality of all UN Member States, particularly as they all, including Slovenia, contribute to the Conference’s budget,” she underscored.
The Committee also heard a briefing by Bassem Hassan, Chair of the Group of Governmental Experts on Further Practical Measures for the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space. It then began a thematic debate on the topic.
Speaking on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the representative of Singapore said access to outer space is an inalienable right of all States, and one that no State should feel compelled to contest. He reaffirmed the vital importance of preventing an arms race in outer space and called on the General Assembly to continue playing a leading role in ensuring the domain’s peaceful use and exploration.
Argentina’s delegate, also speaking as the President of the Subsidiary Body of the Conference on Disarmament on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS), said preventing an outer space arms race would avoid serious danger to international peace and security. Space activity is vital to ensure the well-being of humanity, through the provision of services, including communications, navigation and timing, search and rescue and weather forecasting, he stressed.
On a similar note, the speaker for Germany said everyone depends increasingly on the peaceful and sustainable use of outer space systems and applications. In their absence, today’s life on Earth would be quite different in many ways. He said it is in everyone’s interest to preserve a safe, secure and sustainable space environment.
Yet now space has become increasingly congested, contested and competitive, observed the delegate for New Zealand. She called on all Member States to abide by their international commitments in the Outer Space Treaty, and to not place nuclear weapons into orbit.
In his turn, Switzerland’s representative noted the exponential number of objects in orbit. The disruption of space-based operations could have dire consequences for the civilian population on Earth, he warned.
The detonation of a nuclear weapon in space would have catastrophic consequences by severely disrupting critical space-based services, emphasized the delegate for the Netherlands.
Therefore, preventing an arms race in outer space is of utmost importance, stressed Norway’s delegate, reiterating the importance of addressing space threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviour. It is also important that States recognize the growing interests of non-governmental actors with regard to space activities, he added.
Brazil’s representative said that there are little to no guardrails against the possibility of generalized conflict in outer space, and the need for such a framework has never been more acute. In recent years, an unprecedented multiplication of tensions with a bearing on the outer space environment is taking place before our very eyes. This stands in stark contrast with the exponential increase of the importance of space for all States, regardless of their domestic technological capabilities in this field, both for civilian and military purposes. Developing countries are the most vulnerable to any possible conflict in space, given their lack of advanced space capabilities, he underscored.
Rights of reply were exercised after the debate on disarmament machinery by the representatives of the United States, Israel and Iran.
NEW – Follow real-time meetings coverage on our LIVE blog.