Author : Colonel GG Pamidi,

Background

            The Conference on Disarmamnent (CD) was formed in 1979 as the single multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community. This was formed after an agreement was reached in 1978 among all the member states of the UN during the first special session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) devoted to disarmament. The CD is the successor to the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament (TNDC), Geneva, 1960; the Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament (ENDC), Geneva, 1962-68; and the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament (CCD), Geneva,1969-78[1].

            As originally constituted, the CD had 40 members, however, following the unification of Germany and the breakup of former Yugoslavia, only 38 countries participated in the work of the Conference until 1995. Currently, 65 states are members of the CD[2].

Relationship of the CD with the UN

            The CD has a special relationship with the United Nations. It adopts its own rules of procedure and its own agenda, taking into account the recommendations made by the UNGA and the proposals presented by its members. It reports to the General Assembly annually or more frequently, as appropriate. The CD meets on the UN premises and is serviced by UN personnel. It conducts its work by consensus and it has a permanent agenda agreed upon in 1978 itself.

Treaties Successfully Negotiated

            The CD and its predecessors have negotiated multi-lateral arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament agreements such as:-

• The Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BTWC).
• The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
• The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
• The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
• Environmental Modification and Seabed treaties.

Agenda

            The agenda of the CD is primarily focused on disarmament and towards that ultimate goal, it includes negotiations on:

• Cessation of the nuclear arms race and nuclear disarmament;
• Prevention of nuclear war, including all related matters;
• Prevention of an arms race in outer space (PAROS);
• Effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons;
• New types of weapons of mass destruction such as radiological weapons;
• A comprehensive programme of disarmament;
• Prohibition of the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices;
• Transparency in armaments; and
• Consideration and adoption of the annual report and any other report, as appropriate, to the UNGA.

Deadlock in the CD since 1996

            The last successful treaty negotiated by the CD was the CTBT in 1996 and ever since, it has remained deadlocked. It has not been able to reach consensus on a programme of work and thus no substantive deliberations has been possible. The principal problems include:-

• Difficulties in the current relations between key players.
• Disagreement among them on the prioritisation of main issues.
• Attempts of some countries to link progress in one area to parallel progress in other areas.

Current Status: Hungary steps down and now it is upto India

            Hungary was the first of six nations that assumed the conference presidency during 2013. There are a total of three separate sessions that are planned to be conducted and the conference presidency is shared successively by the six nations, one by one. Hungary’s work plan was similar to proposals from prior sessions, intended to address nuclear disarmament, preventing a space arms race, the fissile materials pact, and assurances that nuclear-armed nations would not use or threaten to use those assets against states without such weapons[3].

            Hungary had proposed that a single working group deal with disarmament and the fissile materials cutoff, rather than separate panels as proposed in previous years. However, Pakistan on 12 February 2013 ended this latest effort to establish a plan of work that would finally have allowed the CD to move forward with negotiations on a treaty to ban production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. India is the incoming president of the CD[4].

Challenges to the India at the CD

            India has the unique experience of being subjected to all the ill-effects of a discriminatory treaty like the NPT that resulted with the world being divided into two; the nuclear haves and the nuclear have not’s. Therefore, India along with the other countries, can be expected to ensure that the final text of the treaty does not prescribe separate rules for the NWS and NNWS and thereby ending up becoming another NPT. All the concerns can be expected to be addressed. However, the challenge of Pakistan remains. The importance of Pakistan too agreeing to the negotiations has been realised from the beginning but actual progress has been remarkably slow. Pakistan has asserted that a fissile material cutoff treaty would put it at strategic disadvantage vis-à-vis India.

Conclusion

             India has long maintained that nuclear weapons, whether in the hands of governments or terrorist groups, pose one of the greatest dangers to humankind today. Clearly, an essential pre-requisite for achieving a stable world peace is ending the production of fissile materials for weapons and disposing of their vast accumulated stocks. The key to the success of India’s Presidency at the CD is the political will on behalf of the NWS, the de-facto States with Nuclear Weapons(SNW) and the NNWS. The creation of that political will depends upon what each nation perceives as its national interest. Only if Pakistan thinks that the FMCT is in its national interest, will it begin to actively pursue the negotiations and conclude the treaty. Until then, the movement on this front can be expected to be slow. However, negotiations to convince all concerned about the viability and potential benefits to world stability of such a treaty must be pursued in all earnestness.