Statement by H. E. Ambassador Sumio Tarui

Permanent Representative of Japan to the Conference of Disarmament

Meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts of the High Contracting Parties to

The Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects

18 January 2008, Geneva

Mr. Chairman,

The Japanese delegation would like to extend our most sincere appreciation to your outstanding leadership. I also would like to thank Major General Fynbo for chairing the military and technical experts’ meeting.

The Japanese delegation is pleased that under your chairmanship we could commence our negotiations in this meeting. We think that all High Contracting Parties have demonstrated to the international community our will to address humanitarian concerns posed by cluster munitions. By doing so, we have proven that the framework of the CCW matters.

We have especially displayed this by embarking on concrete actions for drafting the working definitions. We are also grateful to General Mikheev of the Russian delegation for his great contribution as a coordinator on this important issue.

Mr. Chairman,

With your excellent chairmanship, we have laid a good foundation to continue our negotiation in April. In April, we hope that we can reach a general consensus on the parameters or elements of the future Protocol to further advance our negotiations. As I stated at the outset of the meeting, my delegation is willing to continue to extend our full support to you and is looking forward to working with you and our colleagues.

Thank you.