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Foreign Minister Westerwelle advocates revitalizing Geneva Conference on Disarmament
Speaking about the Geneva Conference on Disarmament, which begins tomorrow, Foreign Minister Westerwelle expressed hope that the stalemate in negotiations could be broken. He issued the following statement today (23 January):
“We need to take the positive impetus created by consensus on START and by the success of the Review Conference on Non-Proliferation and use it to revitalize negotiations at the Geneva Conference on Disarmament and make further progress in the field of disarmament and arms control.
The 2011 Geneva Conference on Disarmament needs to become an effective forum for negotiating treaties on multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation.
The German Government will be campaigning in Geneva for the long-awaited start to negotiations on ending the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons. An end to production would make the world a safer place.”
The Geneva Conference on Disarmament is the world’s only permanent negotiating forum for disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation. The member states have not managed to launch negotiations on further disarmament treaties since 1999. The member states last reached agreement on a comprehensive ban on nuclear testing 15 years ago.