- Home
- About us
- WTO
- United Nations
- Disarmament
- Services for Australians
- Statements
- Visas and migration
- Travelling to Australia
- Doing business with Australia
- Study in Australia
- Media
- About Australia
- Events
Conference on Disarmament
Statement by Ms Valerie Grey
Deputy Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament
Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Geneva
26 January 2010
Mr President
The Australian delegation warmly congratulates you on your assumption of the Presidency of the Conference on Disarmament and assures you of the full support and cooperation of the Australian delegation to the Conference on Disarmament.
Mr President,
We look forward to working constructively and collegially with you and with all the six Presidents to make this year as productive as possible for the Conference. Let me reiterate Australia’s support for the six Presidents platform which has made a very useful contribution to the smooth functioning of the Conference on Disarmament. I should like to thank you and your colleagues for the very professional consultations Bangladesh has undertaken to prepare for the Presidency – both with all CD delegations and with the other P6. I congratulate you particularly on your successful consultations over the last week to achieve adoption of the 2010 CD agenda. As one of last year’s CD P6 Presidents, Australia fully recognises the value of comprehensive, transparent consultations with CD delegations.
Mr President,
The disarmament agenda has become more active and more engaged. We have seen real, tangible commitments to disarmament. We welcomed the positive atmosphere of negotiations between Russia and the United States aimed at reducing nuclear arsenals.
And Australia welcomed the success of the 2009 Conference on Disarmament in agreeing in CD/1864 a program of work. That program of work was achieved through comprehensive, extensive consultations with all CD members. It set out a good basis to move forward. But we proved unable to take a further step forward, the step that would get the CD back to work. Despite our agreement to the program of work in CD/1864, agreement on how to implement the program of work in CD/1864 eluded us.
We do not underestimate the challenges of translating abstract goals into practical steps. Avoiding those challenges is not the solution. Australia remains determined to achieve progress towards nuclear disarmament. We are committed to the Conference on Disarmament as the right place to begin work to implement the practical steps towards nuclear disarmament.
Australia’s priority in this year’s Conference on Disarmament will be to take the practical step forward, early this year, to agree on a program of work enabling negotiations towards an FMCT. An FMCT is an immediate priority step in our efforts to realise nuclear disarmament. Australia, together with the vast majority of the CD, looks to 2010 as the year in which we act upon our long stated support for an FMCT, put our negotiating mandate into effect and take practical steps towards achieving a reduction in the availability of fissile material. Australia considers that CD/1864 remains a good basis for the next step forward.
We need to get the CD back to work.
Negotiation of an FMCT is a key practical step this Conference can take to address both nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation.
Mr President,
Australia is strongly committed to nuclear disarmament. That is why in 2008 the Australian and Japanese Prime Ministers established the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND). The Commission’s recently released Report restates the case for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. The Report puts forward ambitious, pragmatic and compelling plans of action to achieve our goal of a nuclear weapons free world.
Australia’s co-Chair of the Commission, and former Foreign Minister, Professor Gareth Evans, will launch the ICNND Report in Geneva on 1 February. All of you will have received copies of the Report. The Synopsis of the Report is being circulated as an official document of the Conference on Disarmament, in all six UN languages. The Australian Government considers this Report a significant contribution to the international debate on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. I very much look forward to an engaged productive discussion on the recommendations proposed in this Report.
The Australian Government is giving its fullest attention to the Report’s recommendations, and we look forward to sharing our views with you in this Conference.
Mr President,
Australia looks forward to supporting you and your P6 Presidential colleagues throughout 2010 in your efforts to get the CD back to work.
I thank you.