Remarks by Ambassador Hamid Ali Rao of India — CD Plenary, 22 February 2011

Mr. President, as this is the first time that we are speaking under your Presidency, let me say how pleased we are to see Chile, a member of the Group of 21 and a country with which we enjoy friendly and growing relations preside over our work. We would also like to thank you for undertaking consultations and we pledge you our support in taking forward the work of the Conference.

India attaches high importance to the Conference on Disarmament as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum. It has all the relevant players and its Rules of Procedure provide the necessary assurance to member-States that their security interests are fully protected in the conduct of its work. The main vocation of the Conference is negotiation of multilateral treaties of universal application and discussions in CD plenary or in informal meetings whatever we may wish to call them are not a substitute for negotiations.

With the adoption of its agenda for 2011 at its very first meeting on 25 January 2011, the Conference took a significant step forward in undertaking its responsibilities. We support your initiative to devote today's plenary to the next priority step of agreeing on a Programme of Work.

Let us recall that the Conference was able to adopt by consensus a Programme of Work for 2009 contained in CD/1864, which was itself the result of a difficult compromise. The High Level Meeting of 24 September 2010 demonstrated that what was achieved in May 2009 after much hard work and compromise still offered a realistic basis of agreement. The UNSG in his address to the CD on January 26, 2011 affirmed this assessment.

Mr. President, as we stated earlier, India will not stand in the way if consensus emerges on a Programme of Work picking up from where we were in terms of the consensus decision CD/1864, if such a decision facilitates the early commencement of substantive work of the Conference, including negotiation of an FMCT. This is without prejudice to the priority we attach to Nuclear Disarmament.

However, Mr. President, if there is no consensus on a Programme of Work it is incumbent on the CD President to continue consultations to build the necessary consensus on an acceptable Programme of Work so that the CD can discharge its responsibilities. We support negotiations on FMCT in the CD as a part of its Programme of Work. We do not favour reopening the long-standing consensus on the mandate of the FMCT which is stated clearly in CD/1299, and is in turn based on the consensus resolution adopted by the UNGA in 1993.

India will continue to contribute to the discussions in the CD with the aim of the CD commencing substantive work by reaching consensus on its Programme of Work as early as possible.

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