The Conference on Disarmament, the world’s sole multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, faces becoming irrelevant to international relations given its recent lack of progress, a senior United Nations official warned Thursday.
IKKE BLOT NUL-FREMSKRIDT; MEN MINUS-FREMSKRIDT
Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and Director-General of the UN Office at Geneva, where the Conference is meeting, told members that they were supposed to have made progress on a proposed international ban on weapon-grade nuclear material over the past four weeks.
Instead, he said, that progress was “not even zero – it was minus,” with members unable to even agree on a programme of work.
– That is not only intolerable in the Conference, but it is also becoming intolerable in international relations – with the most important United Nations body dealing with disarmament not able to do anything but even regressing, Mr. Ordzhonikidze said.
The Conference was – at its start in January, 2010, described as an historic year for progress on disarmament and non-proliferation goals.
The Conference is next scheduled to meet on Tuesday.
