United Nations Radio

Disarmament conference hall

PRESENTER: The Conference on Disarmament began its 2009 session in Geneva on Tuesday, hearing a plea sent by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to break the deadlock that has plagued it for the past ten years and begin negotiations on new Disarmament treaties. The 65-nation conference, the world's only multilateral disarmament negotiating body, has drawn up treaties including those outlawing chemical weapons and nuclear testing. But since its work on the Comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, countries have not been able to agree on which Disarmament issue should be the subject of new negotiations. Yvette Morris reports from Geneva.

In his message to the Conference the Secretary-General said its immediate task was to convert its discussion on procedure into practical negotiations that would lead to real disarmament.

Sergei Ordzhonkidze

At a time of global economic and financial crisis, advancing the the disarmament agenda could produce a tangible peace dividend when the world needed it most.

Sergei Ordzhonkidze, the Secretary-General's Personal Representative to the conference told UN Radio prospects for negotiations had improved.

"The concrete result was last year's presidential proposal that envisages negotiations on an agreement banning the production of fissile material, for nuclear weapons use, and other nuclear explosive devices, while providing for substantive discussions for other three core issues, that is nuclear disarmament, negative security assurances, and the prevention of arms race in outer space."

Mr. Orzhonikidze said although there were divergent views about specifics, there had been no opposition to the part of the President's proposal on a treaty banning the production of fissile material an essential for weapons purposes. Fissile material is an important element in nuclear weapons.

Mr. Ordzhonikidze spoke of a possible evolution in the United States position on the issue.

The recent announcement by the Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton that she plans to work on ratification of the Comprehensive test ban Treaty and to revive negotiations on a Fissile Material Treaty may help the Conference in making progress on nuclear issues including in the area of this fissile material.

Mr. Orzhonikidze is optimistic that despite the long impasse, the Conference will start its real substantive work soon.

"The fact that the process is difficult and takes quite a long time should not discourage anybody. Disarmament touches upon the core strategic interest of states and that is the problem. We cannot expect agreement to come very easily."

As Secretary-General Ban said in his message to the Conference, Mr. Orzhonikidze stressed the importance of reducing arms spending, particularly in the current economic crisis.

"Let's remember that the total global military expenditure has now topped 1.3 trillion US dollars. You can imagine the resources that could be that could be channeled towards development if even a fraction of this huge sum is going to be spent in the interests of development."

Sergei Orzhonikidze, Personal Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to the Conference on Disarmament.

Yvette Morris, UN Radio, Geneva

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