Global Security Newswire

Delegates from several nations on Tuesday delivered recommendations for breaking the deadlock that has for more than a decade prevented negotiations at the international Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland, the United Nations said (see GSN, Jan. 25).

One proposal would allow for working-level talks that would address any matters that are held up in the conference until the impasse can be overcome, or simply conduct the body's work without a set work agenda.

It has been almost 16 years since the 65-nation member organization negotiated a new arms control treaty. The conference in 2009 ended an impasse that had lasted for more than 10 years, agreeing to a work plan that would focus on negotiating a treaty banning the production of new fissile material for nuclear warheads; preventing the placement of weapons in outer space; nuclear disarmament; and supplying negative security assurances to non-nuclear armed nations. After initially supporting the work plan, Pakistan subsequently withdrew its backing and has blocked any progress on the agenda. The conference operates on the principle of consensus.

Frustrated with the lack of progress, some member nations and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have warned the body risks slipping into irrelevance. There has also been talk of conducting fissile materials negotiations outside of the conference if the impasse continues for much longer (see GSN, Aug. 4, 2011).

Ban has told the body it must achieve real headway to prevent the U.N. General Assembly from considering alternatives for moving international disarmament concerns forward.

Representatives from 13 nations spoke to the conference on Tuesday morning.

Another state proposal would have the conference turn to issues not contained in the 2009 work plan such as addressing terrorists' acquisition of conventional weaponry. A separate suggestion was made to form a working group that would focus on what type of guarantees would be needed to assure non-nuclear armed nations they would be safe from nuclear attack or coercion by nuclear-weapon possessor states.

A number of countries objected to the seeming suggestion from the current conference president, Ecuadorian Ambassador Luis Gallegos Chiriboga, that fissile materials treaty considerations be taken off the table for the time being. While the matter has been the focus of Pakistan's objections, the countries argued it would not be possible to meet the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons if a ban on new fissile material was not first achieved.

The conference is scheduled to reconvene next Tuesday (United Nations Office at Geneva release, Jan. 31).