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Conference on Disarmament Concludes 2003 Session Without Agreement, September 9

'Conference on Disarmament Concludes 2003 Session', United Nations Press Release DCF/430, September 9.

The Conference on Disarmament, the world's sole multilateral forum for disarmament negotiations, today concluded the third and last part of its 2003 session after adopting its annual report.

In its report, the Conference noted that during the annual session, successive Presidents of the Conference had conducted intensive consultations with a view to reaching a consensus on the programme of work. In the course of those consultations, a number of informal proposals related to the programme of work had been put forward. The Conference did not, however, agree on the programme of work and did not re-establish or establish any mechanism on any of its specific agenda items during the 2003 session.

On 23 January 2003, a group of five Ambassadors to the Conference on Disarmament - the Ambassadors of Algeria, Belgium, Chile, Sweden and Colombia - officially presented a cross-group initiative to end the stalemate on the programme of work. Based on the proposal by Ambassador Amorim of Brazil in August 2000 (CD/1624), the "Five Ambassadors" proposal sought to bridge the gaps between member States of the Conference on the main stumbling blocks - prevention of an arms race in outer space and nuclear disarmament. The proposal of the Five Ambassadors called for the establishment of four ad hoc committees on the topics of negative security assurances; nuclear disarmament; a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices; and prevention of an arms race in outer space.

The Conference on Disarmament works by consensus and cannot undertake new work without the agreement of all member States. This is the fifth consecutive year during which it has been unable to reach agreement on a programme of work and start work on substantive issues.

This year's session also witnessed the announcement on 10 January 2003 by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea of its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), contending that its withdrawal from the treaty had been caused by a "hostile policy" against the country by the United States, and that this was solely a bilateral issue to be resolved through negotiations with the United States.

In her concluding statement, the President of the Conference, Ambassador Kuniko Inoguchi of Japan, said that many events taking place in today's world had taken the Conference backwards, away from its aim. The current dynamics of the world were not necessarily favourable to global peace.

Ambassador Inoguchi said that the problem facing the Conference remained the same as one year ago - how to find a balance between different priorities in its programme of work. With the support of a wide range of delegations, the Five Ambassadors proposal was a realistic option to strike such a delicate balance. Encouraging signs had recently been witnessed surrounding that proposal. Those developments would indeed provide the presidency with a useful starting point for intersessional consultations.

The Conference adopted its annual report today, which will be presented to the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly. In the report, it requests the current President and the incoming President to conduct consultations during the intersessional period and, if possible, to make recommendations, taking into account all relevant proposals and views presented and discussions held in the 2003 session.

The Conference had decided to examine the following questions in its 2003 session: cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament; prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters; prevention of an arms race in outer space; effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear-weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons (radiological weapons); a comprehensive programme of disarmament; transparency in armaments; and consideration and adoption of the annual report and any other report, as appropriate, to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

At the opening of the 2003 session, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Secretary-General of the Conference and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, read out a message from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in which he said that for years, the protracted lack of agreement on a programme of work has blocked the substantive work of the Conference on all issues on its agenda - even those on which agreement to start negotiations existed, such as a ban on the production of fissile material for weapons purposes. It might be argued that the standstill was a reflection of broader problems in multilateral diplomacy.

The Secretary-General said international peace and security continued to face profound challenges in the form of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery vehicles, rising military expenditures, and the prospect of an arms race in outer space. In addition, he said, new threats had emerged in recent years, especially in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States. He said he welcomed any proposals aimed at fostering consensus on a programme of work, such as a proposal presented during the 2002 session by a group of five former Presidents of the Conference.

The Conference of Disarmament was addressed during its 2003 session by Kanwal Sibal, Foreign Secretary of India; Stephen Rademarker, United States Assistant Secretary for Arms Control; Riaz H. Khokhar, Foreign Minister of Pakistan; Kim Traavik, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Norway; and Yoriko Kawaguchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

The Conference decided that the dates for the three parts of its 2004 session would be from 19 January to 26 March; from 10 May to 25 June; and from 26 July to 10 September. The next plenary of the Conference will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 20 January 2004.

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