CTBTO

Unofficial translation

Madame Chairperson,

First of all we would like to express our deepest condolences to our colleagues from Iran and Iraq with regard to the tragic earthquake that took so many lives.

Madame Chairperson,

Let me welcome you and assure you that our delegation is ready to assist you in ensuring that we have a productive session. I am confident that under your leadership the session will be a success.

We would like to express our satisfaction with the outcome of the 10^th Conference on facilitating entry into force of the CTBT (New York, 20 October) and welcome the adoption of the Final Declaration and measures to promote entry into force of the Treaty. Russia stands ready to participate in its practical implementation. We thank the co-chairs of the Conference, the Permanent Representatives of Belgium and Iraq to the International Organizations in Vienna, for their efforts in effectively organizing and conducting the Conference. We believe that the Conference helped focus broader international community’s attention on the challenge of ensuring early entry into force of the CTBT.

Russia is an active and consistent advocate of the CTBT. In October during the meeting of “Valdai” discussion club the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in response to the question from the Executive Secretary of the PrepCom Lassina Zerbo once again confirmed that Russia will continue to facilitate the process of the Treaty’s early entry into force.

The first Youth Conference on the CTBT took place in Moscow on 18-20 October. It was attended by members of the Youth Group from 7 states that didn’t sign and/or ratified the Treaty. During the opening session Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Ryabkov, Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo, representatives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, members of the Group of Eminent Persons addressed the Conference. Along with a review of the history of the CTBT negotiations, the participants discussed the current state of affairs with respect to the Treaty and its political and technical aspects. We are grateful to the Preparatory Commission for its assistance in organizing and holding the Youth Conference. We hope that the Conference has contributed to consolidating the younger generation in favour of strengthening nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime where an important instrument is the CTBT.

Madame Chairperson,

We are deeply disappointed by the continued deadlock around the Treaty. The protracted foreign policy review process in the United States is increasing uncertainties with regard to the CTBT’s future. Justified doubts that its outcome would be favourable for the Treaty continue to grow. In this context we cannot but note that for the very first time the USA has joined the rank of a few countries which abstained from voting on the traditional draft resolution “Comprehensive-Test-Ban Treaty” (L.42) at the current session of the UN General Assembly’s First Committee. Let me recall that the draft resolution was adopted by 174 votes, with more than 60 co-sponsors including Russia, the UK and France. This is a clearly worrisome evolution. From one of the initiators of the CTBT negotiations more than 20 years ago and an advocate of the Treaty via the Security Council Resolution 2310 last year Washington is now moving down to in essence an obstructionist line with respect to the CTBT. Nonetheless we would like to believe that this is not a final decision and that the United States will soon reconsider its position and demonstrate its commitment to the Treaty through concrete actions.

Madame Chairperson,

We have noted a newly emerged trend in New York towards eliminating any mention of the CTBT from the traditional resolutions of the UN General Assembly. We believe that the CTBT cannot be traded away for the sake of consensus on any issue.

We would also like to note that any attempts to bring matters to the PrepCom that are not relevant to goals and objectives of the Commission such as Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty, humanitarian consequences of possessing nuclear weapons only distract us from the main task of promoting entry into force of the Treaty and lead to division within the ranks of its advocates. Similar negative consequences stem from any attempt to give broader reading to the Treaty’s provisions and scope.

All this requires focused attention and intensification of political efforts in support of the Treaty from its advocates. Ensuring early entry into force of the CTBT becomes as never before an urgent and priority task of the international community.

Madame Chairperson,

We strongly condemn the continuing nuclear tests by the DPRK. However we believe it necessary to refrain from any steps that lead to further escalation of tension in this region. We call upon all parties involved to return to dialogue and negotiations. In this regard we recall the Russia – China Join Initiative on peaceful settlement of the situation on the Korean Peninsula outlined in Joint Statement by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Russia and China of 4 July which was circulated as a document of the Preparatory Commission on 18 August.

We highly appreciate the work of the Provisional Technical Secretariat with regard to detection of a seismic event associated with nuclear test in the DPRK on 3 September. We note that the functioning of such elements of the verification regime of the Treaty as the International Monitoring System (IMS) and the International Data Center (IDC) have reconfirmed once again its high level of operational readiness. At the same time we would like to point out that full-fledged and uninterrupted functioning of the CTBT verification regime will only be possible after the entry into force of the Treaty.

Madame Chairperson,

We would like to express gratitude to the Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo for the informative reports on the activity of the Preparatory Commission. We positively assess the work of the Provisional Technical Secretariat for the reporting period.

We are to adopt the Programme and Budget for 2018-2019. We are grateful to the PTS for preparing this document whose final draft has been amended with due account of suggestions and comments by member States of the Commission and of recommendations of the Advisory Group, and we are ready to support it.

In the course of the session the Russian delegation will be ready to express its opinion on the other agenda items.

Thank you.