Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
India firmly believes that CCW and its Protocols are important instruments that seek to uphold International Humanitarian Law.
As party to the CCW and all its five Protocols, India is committed to ensuring the full implementation of our obligations and the humanitarian principles that the protocols embody.
Universalisation of the CCW remains crucial to the success of the Convention and its Annexed Protocols. India supports the Plan of Action on Universalization as well as the Sponsorship Programme. It has made its financial contributions on time and regularly.
We have regularly submitted Annual Reports on Compliance since 2008. India supports measures aimed at encouraging submission of compliance reports by all states.
Mr. Chairman,
India supports the vision of a world free of the threat of landmines and believe that the availability of militarily effective alternative technologies that can perform cost-effectively, the defensive function of anti-personnel landmines, will facilitate the achievement of this goal.
In addition, we would like to underscore the importance of development and sharing of technology to protect civilians against the indiscriminate use of mines as well as for mines clearance.
India is a leading contributor to UN peace-keeping operations and has extended assistance to international demining and rehabilitation efforts. India has trained mine clearance teams which have undertaken mine clearance tasks in several countries including Cambodia, Lao PDR, Angola, Benin, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
In the last decade, over 800 persons from various countries have undergone training in India in mine clearance and explosives disposal. We remain committed to providing capacity-building and assistance to countries upon their request.
AP-II, we believe, also serves as an appropriate framework for addressing the issue of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) which is today deployed often by terrorists and illegal armed groups.
India supports continuing the useful work on IEDs under the CCW framework with focus on addressing the threat of IEDs.
We believe that while there is a scope for enhancing cooperation among States in exchange of expertise and information sharing on countermeasures, this should be done on a voluntary basis.
Mr. Chairman,
India remains convinced that the CCW is the appropriate forum to address the issue of emerging technologies in the area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems because of the fine balance the Convention seeks to strike between humanitarian concerns and military necessity.
The Convention also provides a dynamic and adaptive platform that can bring together multiple stake-holders. We also believe that addressing this issue within the framework of the CCW strengthens the Convention and enhances its capacity to respond meaningfully to the challenges posed by the application of evolving new technologies to armed conflict in the 21st century.
India, therefore, supports continued discussions on emerging technologies by the Group of Governmental Experts by building on the existing outcomes including the Guiding Principles.
It is our belief that definitions and common understanding of LAWS are critical to provide a sound basis for collective efforts to consider and develop aspects of a normative and operational framework for regulation of LAWS.
The chances of arriving at a consensus on definitions and characterisations, we believe, will improve if the proposals and approaches focus on real life situations and are able to take into account the evolving nature of technology.
There are a number of good proposals that are currently under discussion. India would not like to prejudge the outcome of the deliberation of the GGE at this stage. India will actively participate in the deliberations constructively.
Thank You, Mr. Chairman
******
