Statement by H.E. Mr. Akio Suda

Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Japan

to the Conference on Disarmament

Geneva, 10 August 2009

Madame President,

It is the 64^th anniversary of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki this year. Yesterday, on 9 August, at the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing the President of the United Nations General Assembly appealed for strengthened efforts to eliminate nuclear arsenals.

With the rise of earnest wishes and expectations in Japan for progress in international cooperation on nuclear disarmament, I have to report to my capital and the Japanese people about the present unusual situation in the CD, which is maybe not unusual to the CD, but is very unusual to the rest of the world.

The CD works on consensus, but what we have been witnessing over the past weeks is the unusual situation of the CD being unable to implement the decision made by its own consensus.

We adopted CD/1864 by consensus in May. It means that our consensus is to implement the program of work before the end of this session. But it has been put in danger by a few continuous interventions. If the interventions contain a good reason for discussion, we can and we have to solve the deadlock quickly through consultation. But it seems to be not the case with us now.

We should now realize that this unusual situation is endangering the CD’s principle of consensus itself. While we respect the principle of consensus very much, we have been unable, so far, to implement the decision we made by consensus. This doesn’t seem to me the way the CD respects the principle of consensus, but rather acts against the real meaning of that principle.

If this situation continues for another couple of weeks, it is as if we are confessing to the world outside the CD that we cannot function by ourselves despite the many important issues on the table.

We have opened, by consensus, a bottle of champagne to drink, but we cannot pour the drink into the glasses and just wait while the flavor evaporates into the air making the champagne undrinkable. We brought, by consensus, a melon to eat, but we cannot cut it for the plates and are just on-looking as the fruit gets, not ripe anymore, but rotten in a few weeks.

I would like to say, the CD is in a serious contradiction, particularly at a time when the world is expecting, with many good reasons, long-waited progress in the CD, and particularly at the time when the UNGA will start its deliberations within two months, and the NPT Review Conference will take place within ten months.

Now the time is ripe, the CD has to demonstrate its wisdom to solve the unusual situation by our strengthened cooperation and mutual confidence.

Madame President,

The Japanese delegation highly appreciates your tireless endeavors, and remains very much prepared to work with you and the other delegations in order to put an end to this unusual situation of our Conference.

Thank you.