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The Conference on Disarmament (CD) met on Tuesday morning under the
new presidency of Bulgaria.
Mr. Nikolay Mladenov, Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, delivered a
statement. The CD also heard
Mr. Frank Rose, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Defense
Policy and Verification Operations for the United States,
present President Obama’s newly released
national space policy. The delegations of Russia, Algeria,
Brazil, and Canada addressed comments and questions to Mr. Rose
after his intervention.
Highlights
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Mr. Frank Rose highlighted the new features in the
US National Space Policy, such as that the US will consider
space-related arms control concepts and proposals “that meet the
criteria of equitability and effective verifiability, and which
enhance the national security of the United States and its
allies.”
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Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Nikolay Mladenov, stated
that Bulgaria is assuming the Presidency of the CD during a time
particularly rich of developments in the area of disarmament and
non-proliferation, but despite this, the CD continues to be
blocked by extreme precautions and mistrust that put procedural
chains on its work.
The new US space policy
The
new US space policy, consisting of principles, goals, and
guidelines, was released last week.
Mr. Rose stated that the new policy takes into account
developments that have changed the issues facing the international
space community and noted that it places more emphasis on expanding
international cooperation; it encourages responsible action in
space; it enhances openness and pursues new transparency and
confidence-building measures; and protects critical space
capabilities.
With regards to the issue on the CD agenda,
prevention of an arms race in outer space, the new space policy
states that the US shall pursue bilateral and multilateral
transparency and confidence-building measures to encourage
responsible action in, and the peaceful uses of, space. It also
notes that the US will consider proposals and concepts for arms
control measures if they are equitable, effectively verifiable, and
enhance the national security of the US and its allies. As Mr. Rose
noted, this is a significant departure from the
2006 policy and such position is “consistent both with
long-standing and bipartisan U.S. space policy as well as with the
verification standards that the United States has applied to other
arms control agreements.” Mr. Rose also took the opportunity to
reaffirm that the US supports the inclusion of a “non-negotiating,
or discussion, mandate in any CD program of work” on this subject.
The presentation spurred some delegations to ask questions and
make comments on the new space policy. Mr. Vasiliev from the Russian
delegation wondered if this new space policy would mean that the US
acknowledges that current legal norms and regulations are
insufficient. Mr. Rose repeated that the US had not yet seen a space
arms control agreement that meet the criteria that outlined in the
policy on equitable and effectively verifiable, but emphasized that
the US will work with all space faring nations on very effective
near-term transparency- and confidence-building measures that would
increase the long-term sustainability of space.
Ambassador Jazairy from Algeria questioned if Mr. Rose’s comment
on “non-negotiating” was an expressed dissent to the current draft
proposal contained in
CD/1889, which contains a mandate to discuss substantively the
issue of PAROS, “not excluding negotiations”. However, Mr. Rose
reiterated the position of the US delegation which was expressed
last week, that they do indeed support the language in CD/1889.
Ambassador Macedo Soares from Brazil addressed the two criteria
for arms control agreements in space mentioned in the new
policy—equitability and effective verifiability—and argued that
equitability was difficult to attain. Ambassador Soares noted that
if one country is far-ahead of others on both level of technology
and science, as well as on volume of utilization of outer space, any
commitment would be an equitable burden for that country. And if
equitability were pursued, leading countries would never be able to
negotiate and be party of an agreement.
Ambassador Grinius from Canada drew attention to the report of
the UNIDIR space conference in March 2010, “From
Foundations to Negotiations”, which the Canadian delegation had
submitted as an official document to the CD. Ambassador Grinius
highlighted that such initiatives from UNIDIR and its supporters was
a substantive contribution to enrich and educate the delegations in
the CD.
Is the CD still capable to do the job?
As new president of the CD, the Bulgarian delegation was joined by
its foreign minister, who delivered a statement focusing on the
frustrating lack of progress in the CD.
Mr. Nikolay Mladenov argued that a world free of nuclear weapons
and weapons of mass destruction is a mission above politics and
diplomacy, above national ambitions and personal egos. “Nothing, no
fear, no suspicion, no perception of a single country or group of
states should be in position to prevent us from undertaking most
effective possible steps towards the ultimate goal of nuclear
disarmament,” he stated. Mr. Mladenov expressed disappointment that
developments in the area of disarmament and non-proliferation are
taking place in the outside world, while the CD continues to be
blocked by “extreme precautions and mistrust that put procedural
chains on its work” and argued that the understanding of security
have changed immensely in the last 12 years, while the CD and its
agenda has remained the same. Mr. Mladenov argued that we should
rethink the mechanisms that the CD offers to deal with disarmament
and non-proliferation issues, and asked if the CD still is capable
of creating and keeping the necessary amount of trust to make
delegation sit down together and negotiate. However, he still
attached great importance to the work of the CD, but argued for the
need of a clear and comprehensive vision on multilateral disarmament
machinery.
Notes from the gallery
The changes of the US space policy are significant and a clear
improvement from the previous one, developed by the Bush
administration in 2006. Instead of placing a narrow emphasis on the
US only, the Obama administration policy returns to language used
during the Clinton presidency and focuses on the US role in the
international space community. It reflects a more pragmatic approach
to the challenges facing all current and future space powers and
highlights international cooperation as the appropriate way to find
solutions. However, placing prerequisites, such as “equitable”, on
any future arms control proposals has shown to be problematic for
other issues, such as a fissile material (cut-off) treaty. Such
concerns are better dealt with in actual negotiations, rather than
before. However, if the CD could adopt the current draft programme
of work, it is clear that discussions on initiatives and norms such
as transparency- and confidence-building measures could start
immediately, enabling the member states to pave the way for more
concrete efforts in the future. Until then, we hope to see the US
and all other delegations contribute to developing acceptable
proposal for arms control measures in space in order to help turn
another issue “ripe” for negotiations in the CD.
Next plenary meeting
The next plenary meeting, the last of the second session, will be
held on Thursday, 15 July at 10:00am.
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