MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/. The Western delegations are doing everything they can to prevent the adoption of a comprehensive and balanced program for the work for the Conference on Disarmament, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told the CD in Geneva on Thursday.
"We have always supported efforts to achieve consensus and arrange for constructive work at the conference. However, as the experience of recent years shows, the Western delegations are not interested in launching substantive work and complying with its negotiating mandate. Under far-fetched pretexts they have been doing their utmost to prevent the adoption of a comprehensive and balanced program for work, shifting the focus of the conference to non-core issues of secondary importance," he said.
Ryabkov noted that the Conference on Disarmament remained a unique and uncontested negotiating platform for drafting multilateral legally binding agreements in the field of arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation.
"The agenda of the forum, shaped many years ago, remains relevant. The urgency of starting negotiations on some of its items is becoming ever more obvious," he pointed out.
Ryabkov stressed that Russia would not go along with those who were trying to use the conference for political purposes, let alone "impose the consideration of issues that are not within its competence."
"Together with the countries that share this high-principled position, we will continue to seek the adoption of a balanced and comprehensive agenda, providing for the resumption of the negotiation process," he said.
Ryabkov recalled that the Russian initiative for drafting an international convention to combat acts of chemical and biological terrorism was also aimed at solving this problem. Strengthening the international legal framework for combating WMD terrorism meets the interests of all states, he added.
"In the name of the common interests of international security the participants in the conference must display their political will. The resumption negotiations work is necessary to strengthen international security," he concluded.