Mr. President,
Let me first congratulate Ethiopia on assuming the Presidency of this session of the
Conference on Disarmament, and wish You and everyone else success at this challenging
time for disarmament.
Mr. President,
Estonia has been requesting membership of the Conference on Disarmament since 2001,
yet we were disappointed that this year we will not be able to participate even as observers
and will not have the opportunity to voice our positions at the high-level segment of the
Conference.
Russia’s large-scale war of aggression against Ukraine has been going on for a year. In this
war, Russia has directed its weapons against civilians and civilian infrastructure and is
constantly threatening with nuclear weapons.
As long as Russia’s inexcusable attack against Ukraine is allowed to continue, no
conference on disarmament can ever really be successful. Estonia calls on Russia to stop
purposefully killing civilians, and occupying and endangering Ukrainian nuclear power
plants and facilities. Russia must immediately withdraw its military and other personnel
from all of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.
Russia has used disarmament formats to spread their misinformation about the war and has
turned the rule of consensus into its veto power. With this measure, Russia is actively
dismantling the international arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation framework
by blocking outcome documents and silencing non-governmental organizations and
recently also international organizations.
This year, they stated that they will not accept any observers to the Conference who last
year had “abused” their observer status by criticizing Russia. We deeply regret that the
observer status requests of several United Nations Member States, among others EU
Member States, have to date not been approved. Russia is yet again using an important
forum to showcase its complete lack of interest in meaningful cooperation. We hope the
Conference will remain an inclusive forum in the future.
Mr. President,
It has indeed been a bleak year. There was some progress at the Review Conference of the
Biological Weapons Convention, but we regret the lack of a substantial outcome at the
Review Conference of the Treaty of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
While last year we were hopeful for the extension of the New START treaty, this too has
now been suspended by Russia. It is another step by Russia in a long-standing pattern of
knowingly undermining and weakening the international arms control architecture, as well
as the global rules-based order.
Estonia supports all international efforts towards the entry into force of the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and urges all States, particularly the Annex II States, to sign and
ratify the Treaty without further delay.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has contrary to international calls, taken its
weapons programme further and their launches of ballistic missiles are creating a dangerous
environment at the Pacific and beyond. The DPRK must immediately comply with United
Nations Security Council resolutions by giving up all its nuclear weapons and other
weapons of mass destruction and abandoning its ballistic missile programs and existing
nuclear programs, in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner and cease all related
activities.
The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to move closer to acquiring a nuclear weapon and
further from the full implementation of the JCPOA. This is a clear cause for increasing
concern. There is still time to turn things around. Estonia calls on Iran to stop its dangerous
activities, to respect its nuclear related commitments, and to cooperate with the International
Atomic Energy Agency in resolving all pending questions regarding its safeguards
obligations.
Mr. President,
Only effective multilateralism and rules-based international cooperation, with the UN at its
core, is able to ensure a safer, more stable and sustainable world.
The Conference on Disarmament could have great potential for this cooperation to take
place. It is all the more regrettable that for years it has been prevented from fulfilling its
mandate to negotiate multilateral disarmament treaties. It could also elaborate other
instruments and norms, such as guidelines and codes of conduct. Estonia joins the calls on
members of the Conference on Disarmament to show political leadership to break the longlasting deadlock, to allow for the reappearance of trust and confidence, but first and
foremost, to end the war.
Thank you!
*Intended Statement – The statement was not delivered due to a lack of consensus for the approval of participation of observer States at the Conference.