U.S. Ambassador Bruce Turner’s Remarks to the Conference on Disarmament at the
Opening of the Hungarian Presidency
Thank you, Madame President and welcome, again.
Please allow me to congratulate you on assuming the Presidency of the CD and to assure you and your team of my delegation’s support and cooperation.
And while we’re at it, I want to thank Ambassador Goebel and his team for their excellent work over the course of Germany’s Presidency.
We greatly appreciate this plenary to hear how you plan to approach the Hungarian presidency, and we support your intention to focus on drafting the CD’s final report. Thank you for this transparency, which will allow us all to prepare thoughtfully.
Madame President,
The United States supports producing a positive report that reflects the CD’s range of discussions throughout the past year. I think we can all agree that last year’s report was a little thin – if not pathetically so. We have discussed a number of serious issues, which we believe the final report should reflect in some way.
We believe these issues should be reflected whether or not they were discussed in a “formal session.” In our view, breadth is more important than depth, and there is no need to go into excruciating detail. Similarly, we see no great inherent value in attempting to describe the degree of convergence or divergence. Even if the CD is not currently negotiating a specific agreement, its work nonetheless remains important, and the final report should demonstrate that the CD remains a vital body in the international disarmament machinery, that it is working, and that its work matters. In sum, the United States looks forward to contributing toward a positive, fulsome, and factual report.
Thank you very much.
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