By Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, Jan 20 2000 (IPS)

The United Nations (UN) Conference on Disarmament opened its annual period of sessions in the same climate of discord that has paralysed its operations for the last three years.

The outlook for overcoming this stagnation depends on the results of bilateral meetings organised by the current president of the Conference on Disarmament (CD), Harald Kreid, of Austria.

For now, it is impossible to reach any conclusion about the possibility of resolving the differences in the short term, Kreid said during Thursday’s plenary session.

After it conducts a poll of the 66 member states, and if the results are not discouraging, the CD president’s office plans to request the negotiating blocs to assess several proposed solutions.

In practice, CD members are grouped into two large blocs: the non- aligned countries (Group of 21) that demand multilateral talks on nuclear disarmament, and the more-developed nations (Western Group) that place priority on bilateral negotiations.

The Conference’s work was blocked again this year, following the approval of the agenda, when it came time to decide on the work programme for carrying out the agenda’s eight points.

The only new variable as this year’s sessions opened was the harshness of the criticisms levelled against this negotiating forum, including a rebuke by UN secretary general Kofi Annan, and statements from across the international spectrum.

In a message to the Conference, Annan observed “the deplorable lack of progress on disarmament and international security issues, which the international community considers the highest priority.”

The secretary general called for “genuine measures of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, and a way to prevent an arms race in outer-space.”

CD president Kreid admitted that conditions for renewing the forum’s work after the holiday recess “have not improved.”

As occurred during the two previous annual sessions, most of the delegates from CD member countries attribute the break-down in negotiations to the increasing deterioration of relations in the international sphere.

The current status of the disarmament and non-proliferation issues is even more complicated than last year, acknowledged Argentinean negotiator Guillermo González.

Annan himself discribed the negative climate when he pointed out that negotiations on the START treaty, between the United States and Russia, have stalled.

The short term outlook for implementing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty is discouraging as well, because the US Congress failed to ratify the agreement.

Annan emphasised that a treaty for banning the production and export of fissile material “has not even begun to be negotiated,” and that the Non-Proliferation Treaty review process is “shrouded in uncertainty.”

Kreid called on CD members to weigh the consequences of the changing international environment and decide whether “we resign ourselves to the role of vicitms of circumstances beyond our control, or demonstrate to the outside world that the CD is able to render its services.”

Reappearing on the Conference agenda are the perennial issues of nuclear disarmament and stopping the nuclear arms race, preventing nuclear war, and preventing the arms race in outer space.

The rest of the issues refer to safety guarantees for non-nuclear countries, new forms of mass destruction, a comprehensive disarmament programme and transparency on weapons issues.

In order to make progress on these agenda items, the CD must designate an ad hoc group or a co-ordinator to promote discussions and agreements between the various parties.

Kreid recognised that it would be difficult to reach a consensus in naming these mediators. But he proposed that the group begin informal and open talks on setting up these groups for studying two issues: nuclear disarmament and weapons in outer space.

The Pakistan-India conflict, which led to military confrontations and the creation of nuclear arsenals in the two neighbouring countries, had its repercussions on the Conference.

Pakistani delegate Munir Akram proposed that the CD take up the issue of regional and subregional disarmament, which would include the tensions between Pakistan and India.

But India’s delegate, Savitri Kunadi, pointed out that her government had already rejected the Pakistani proposal in the UN General Assembly, and warned that it would continue its opposition within the Conference.

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