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Ambassador Dayan Jayatillaka appointed
CD Coordinator on Comprehensive Programme on Disarmament
The Permanent Mission of
Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva
29th January 2008
Ambassador Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka
to the United Nations in Geneva has been appointed the Coordinator for
the "Comprehensive Programme of Disarmament" by the President
of the Conference on Disarmament (CD).
At the Plenary meeting today held in the Council Chamber of the United
Nations Office at Geneva (Palais des Nations), the Permanent Representatives
of Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Japan and Senegal were also appointed Coodinators
for the subjects of "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",
and "New types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of
such weapons: radiological weapons" respectively.
In its agenda for 2008 which was adopted last week, the Conference
on Disarmament agreed to work in the above subjects. The CD is expected
to deliberate them with a view to arriving at an agreement on its programme
of work during its current session.
The six Coordinators are expected to conduct intensive consultations
among the member States of the Conference on Disarmament on these subjects
and submit reports to the President of the Conference in mid-March 2008.
Earlier in the morning, in his capacity as the Coordinator of the G-21
(Non-Aligned Group of the Conference on Disarmament) Ambassador Dr.
Dayan Jayatilleka made the following statement on the programme of work
of the Conference for 2008:
I have the honour to make the following statement on behalf of the
Group of 21.
The G-21 fully appreciates your striving to find common ground on a
programme of work to begin our efforts as early as possible. We are
confident that you will guide this Conference to find that common ground
to build upon the momentum created to move the Conference on Disarmament
out of its long-standing stalemate.
The G-21 firmly believes that the promotion of multilateralism and multilaterally
agreed solutions in accordance with the rules of procedure of the Conference
on Disarmament should be regarded as the core principle of any negotiations
we may pursue in the Conference. This would preserve the unique role
of this forum which we consider as the sole multilateral negotiating
body on disarmament.
While we reiterate our long-standing position that achieving total nuclear
disarmament remains the highest priority of the G-21, we have shown
flexibility in the past to move forward to adopt a balanced and comprehensive
programme of work responsive to the core issues recognized by the Conference.
We are also mindful of the urgent need to address the issues pertaining
to fissile material, prevention of an arms race in outer space and negative
security assurances, and in this regard we appreciate the different
priorities of different delegations in addressing these four core issues.
Therefore, as we said at the outset, the Conference on Disarmament should
promote a balanced and a comprehensive programme of work, which will
help us accelerate progress towards consensus. How to achieve this balance
is the challenge before us and we would assure you our full cooperation
and flexibility in that exercise, in the expectation that this will
be reciprocated by other nations.
Thank you Mr. President."
Conference on Disarmament
The Conference on Disarmament (CD), established in 1979 as the single
multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community,
was a result of the first Special Session on Disarmament of the United
Nations General Assembly held in 1978. It succeeded other Geneva-based
negotiating fora, which include the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament
(1960), the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament (1962-68), and
the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (1969-78).
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