Mr. President,

I would like to join the previous speaker, the distinguished representative from the Russian Federation in thanking you for your efforts to take forward our work and distributing the revised version of the Programme of Work as contained in CD/WP/620/Rev.1.

We see a number of revisions in the draft text and have sent the draft to our capital for their comments.  While we await their comments, I would like to make a few preliminary remarks and also raise a couple of queries.

We see a major change in Para 9(b) as also mentioned by you, where the reference to CD/1299 has been taken out.  We are disappointed to see this change as in our view CD/1299 and the mandate contained therein, was agreed by consensus in this Conference on Disarmament and remains the most suitable basis on which future negotiations should commence.

While there is no reference to CD/1299 now, we also see a new language referring to the outcomes of special processes regarding this issue.  It is not clear from the language what these special processes are and would like to seek clarity from you about them otherwise it is a very abstract term here.

Similarly, we would also like to seek some clarity about critical infrastructure protection and multilateral arrangements on transparency as referred to in Para 9 (e), particularly because para 9(e) clubs three agenda items.

At the same time, we would like to express our satisfaction and welcome the inclusion of the concept of continuity in the work of the Conference on Disarmament as suggested in para 15 so that we do not have to start from scratch at the beginning of each year.  We cannot afford to lose the precious work carried out by the past Presidencies and that by you and the upcoming Presidencies later this year.  This trend needs to be arrested and we are happy that you have addressed this issue.

Thank you, Mr. President.