Robert T. Grey, Jr.

U.S. representative to the Conference on Disarmament

Geneva -- President Clinton has urged the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament (CD) to begin negotiating a global ban on anti-personnel landmines. Clinton's message was read to the conference's 1998 opening session by Robert T. Grey, Jr., the new United States representative to the CD. "As you resume your critical efforts to strengthen global security, I pledge the full support of the United States Delegation in taking the next steps in the nuclear disarmament process and banning anti-personnel landmines from the face of the earth," Clinton said in the message. The president also urged the conference to begin negotiating a cutoff of production of the fissile material used for nuclear explosives. "If the conference can promptly conclude these accords, complementing deep bilateral reductions in nuclear arms and the Ottawa Convention, we will take important steps on the road to a world that is free of nuclear weapons and safe for children to tread. I am confident that the Conference on Disarmament can meet the challenge," he said. Grey, who spoke in his first address to the CD as head of the U.S. delegation, said he was hopeful that the CD will be able to move forward with its work and reassume "its rightful place as an effective multilateral disarmament negotiating forum." Following is the text of Grey's prepared statement, which includes the president's message: (begin text) First, may I congratulate you on your assumption of the Presidency, and assure you of my full cooperation and that of my delegation in your important efforts to begin the Conference's work this year. I would also like to thank you for your warm words of welcome as I take up my duties as the United States Representative to the Conference on Disarmament. Mr. President, I have asked for the floor this morning to deliver to the Conference a statement from the President of the United States upon the occasion of the opening plenary of the 1998 session. The text is as follows: "As you resume your critical efforts to strengthen global security, I pledge the full support of the United States Delegation in taking the next steps in the nuclear disarmament process and banning anti-personnel landmines from the face of the earth. No issues are more important today to this body's work than a cutoff of fissile material production for nuclear explosives and a worldwide ban on the export of anti-personnel landmines. If the Conference can promptly conclude these accords, complementing deep bilateral reductions in nuclear arms and the Ottawa Convention, we will take important steps on the road to a world that is free of nuclear weapons and safe for children to tread. I am confident the Conference on Disarmament can meet the challenge." (end of statement) Mr. President, most of us -- I would hope all of us -- desire to begin work in the Conference as soon as possible on the pressing security issues that confront the international community. I begin my tenure at the head of the U.S. Delegation with the hope that we can quickly resolve our differences and place the practical security concerns of the world's peoples at the forefront of our agenda. At the 1997 session of the United Nations First Committee, we all heard many lamentations about the inability of the Conference to do any work last year as well as fears that the Conference would fade into irrelevance if this situation remained unchanged. President Clinton's statement, which I just read out, points us in the right direction to correct this very unfortunate state of affairs. I hope that we can work together to achieve the goals set forth in the statement and to restore the Conference to its rightful place as an effective multilateral disarmament negotiating forum. Thank you, Mr. President.

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