APS : TUESDAY 21 JANUARY 2020
GENEVA – The Conference on Disarmament opened on Tuesday its 2020 session in the Geneva-headquartered United Nations Palace, under the chairmanship of Rachid Belbak, Ambassador,
Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations Office in Geneva, and other international organizations in Switzerland.
This event provides Algeria with the opportunity to make more visible its traditional role as an active actor within UN bodies.
In a message to the Conference, Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum called on members of the Conference to “draw inspiration from the UN principles in order to mobilize the political willingness, necessary to revitalize the body role.”
The foreign minister recalled “the significant contributions of our country in the field of disarmament, notably nuclear disarmament, through the responsibilities assumed within this Conference, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the first UN Commission in New York. This year, Algeria co-chairs the Conference to facilitate the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.”
Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador Belbaki paid tribute to former Foreign Minister, late Mohamed Salah Dembri, who remarkably served as Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Algeria to Geneva from 1996 to 2004.
Belbaki also urged the members “to give a fresh impetus to the body, with a view to help it regain its role as the sole multilateral disarmament negotiating forum.”
Recalling Algeria’s recognized position and efforts in this area, Belbaki stressed that “the Algerian presidency will strive to establish climate of confidence and appeasement, which is essential to the smooth running of the works of the Conference,” encouraging” all the delegations to pool their diversity and the complementarity of their views in order to prevail over differences and make prevail collective interest, in the service of global security.”
In this regard, the Algerian presidency urged all the players to “take advantage of the instruments offered by the Conference rules, as well as the opportunities of good practices and existing initiatives to achieving positive results.”
The presidency of the 2020 session will be successively held by Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh and Belarus
