CD should not be subjected to the vagaries of changing int’l strategic landscape - Ariyasinha

Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, addressing the Conference on Disarmament (CD) on Tuesday (31 July), has expressed Sri Lanka's "profound disappointment that the Conference has not been enabled to undertake substantive work on its agenda". He said, "It is time to avoid the temptation of subjecting the work of this Conference to the vagaries of changing international strategic landscape, and instead, to harness its potential to contribute towards enhancing cooperative security". Emphasizing the importance of the CD "as the sole multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the international community", Ambassador Aryasinha said, "in order to continue to preserve the unique role of the Body, it is vital that all of us, the Member States, allow the Conference to begin its substantive work on the basis of a balanced and focussed Programme of Work, that takes into account security concerns of all its Members in an equitable manner, thereby ensuring its acceptance by consensus".

“Sri Lanka maintains its concerns that the continued existence of nuclear weapons and of their possible use or threat of use, poses an overarching threat to humanity, and joins the collective voice for the elimination of nuclear weapons from national arsenals.  Pending this achievement, we are of the view that there is an urgent need to reach an early agreement on a universal, unconditional and legally binding instrument to assure non-nuclear weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons”Ambassador Ariyasinha has said.