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Statement by HE Ambassador Carlo Trezza,
Permanent Representative of Italy to the Conference on Disarmament.
Geneva, January 20, 2004

Madame President,
Let me first congratulate your country, Kenya, and you personally for the important and challenging task of chairing the Conference on disarmament at this very delicate juncture. Your experience in multilateral affairs, your background and reputation, so as your commitment to the resumption of negotiations in the CD make you the ideal person to give an impulse to this Conference. Let me also acknowledge the important work and consultations that you undertook in the past weeks – which I have personally witnessed - in preparation of this meeting and of your Presidency. This is also the moment to pay tribute to your predecessor, Ambassador Inoguchi of Japan, for her tireless efforts to give an impulse to the CD and for the constructive results of her presidency. I also wish to welcome the new colleagues who have recently been appointed to the Conference on Disarmament and wish them a successful mission in Geneva. Our resumed work takes place – as you have mentioned - at a time in which we register some significant and positive developments in the fields disarmament and non-proliferation: since we met last time in the CD, Iran signed the IAEA Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement; a few weeks later Libya ratified the CTBT and the Chemical Weapons Convention. Other meaningful events, mentioned by you and by the Secretary General of the UN in his message to the CD, have taken place.

Madame President,
I would like to take the opportunity of this first meeting of the CD in 2004 to bring to the attention of member states an issue which is of growing relevance in the field of disarmament and non- proliferation and which is pertinent to our debates in the Conference on Disarmament.

The significant reductions of weapons of mass destruction that have taken
place through multilateral, plurilateral, bilateral and unilateral disarmament and arms control treaties and processes in the past decades have brought to the attention of the international community the enormous technical and financial problems connected with the actual destruction of military arsenals. In some cases the costs and efforts to eliminate them have been higher than the costs of their production. These problems have come to the surface as a new co-operative approach to disarmament and non-proliferation, which currently goes under the name of the “Co-operative threat reduction”, was being developed. We believe that this issue deserves to be presented to the Conference on Disarmament since -in the opinion of the Italian Government- it is a relevant part of the disarmament process.

In the past decade, the United States, Russia, the European Union, Japan, Canada and other countries have worked together to secure and dismantle nuclear, biological and chemical weapons materials, carriers and infrastructure. The culminating moment of this initiative took place in Kananaskis, Canada in June 2002 when the leaders of the Group of the 8 most industrialised countries announced a “ Global Partnership” against the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Participants at the Summit pledged to raise up to 20 billion US dollars over the following ten years to address these WMD threats and in particular to “ prevent terrorists, or those who harbour them, from acquiring or developing nuclear, chemical radiological and biological weapons; missile and related materials equipment and technologies”. In addition to these important financial pledges, the G8 leaders also agreed on a comprehensive set of non-proliferation principles as well as on guidelines designed to remove obstacles that had hindered the realisation of similar projects in the past. In the “Guidelines for new or expanded co-operation projects” it is stated that the G8 will work in partnership, bilaterally and multilaterally, to develop, co-ordinate implement and finance, according to their respective means, new or expanded cooperation projects. The main purpose was to address non-proliferation, disarmament, counter-terrorism and nuclear safety (including environmental) issues, with a view to enhancing strategic stability, consonant with the international security objectives and in support of the multilateral non-proliferation regimes. Each country had the primary responsibility for implementing its non-proliferation, disarmament, counter-terrorism and nuclear safety obligations and requirements and committed its full co-operation with the partnership. The priority concerns were the destruction of chemical weapons, the dismantlement of decommissioned nuclear submarines, the disposition of fissile materials and the employment of former weapons scientists. Other countries that were prepared to adopt the principles and the guidelines were invited to enter into discussion on participating in and contributing to this initiative. The G8 would be willing to enter into negotiations with any other recipient countries, including those of the Former Soviet Union, prepared to adopt the guidelines, for inclusion in the Partnership.

Madame President,
much had already been done in the previous ten years: Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus had joined the NPT as non nuclear weapons states and all nuclear weapons had been eliminated from their territories. According to the Defence Threat reduction Agency, by November 2002 the following reductions had taken place within the framework of the US/Russian cooperation just in the field of disarmament of nuclear weapons and delivery means: 6020 warheads deactivated, 486 ICBMs destroyed, 438 ICBM silos eliminated, 1 ICBM mobile launcher destroyed, 97 bombers eliminated, 483 Nuclear ASMs destroyed, 396 SLBM launchers eliminated, 347 SLBMs eliminated, 24 SSBNs destroyed, 194 nuclear test tunnels/holes sealed.

Although it is not Italy’s intention to seek credits for other countries’ remarkable achievements in this field, let me just mention that at an Inter-Parliamentary Conference on the Global Partnership organised last November, during Italy’s Presidency of the EU, by the European Commission at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, some additional figures were divulged. The US stated that between 1992 and 2003 it provided over 8 billion dollars on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and materials and is now spending one billion dollars per year. According to last year’s French G8 Presidency, a number of programs had moved – after Kananaskis - into the implementation phase in the chemical area, almost 190 nuclear submarines had been dismantled, contracts under the G8 partnership had risen to 700 million $. Others were likely to be announced in the following months.

Madame President,
the co-operative threat reduction has become one of the important components of the new European strategy against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. As stated by the representative of the European Commission at the Inter Parliamentary Conference, the EU (Community and member states) has committed around 600 million Euro for WMD non- proliferation and disarmament over the last 10 years. In 1999 a Joint action, which commits some 5 million Euro yearly for focused projects, was launched to support co-operative WMD non- proliferation and disarmament programs and has been extended until mid 2004.The total sum of 1 billion Euro was committed by the European Community at Kananaskis. The newly appointed Personal Representative for WMD of the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy highlighted at the Strasbourg Conference some of the elements of EU strategy in countering WMD proliferation. In the document on the EU strategy subsequently adopted in Brussels on December 13 2003 by the European Council of Heads of State and Government it is stated that reinforcing the EU cooperative threat reduction programmes with other countries, targeted at support for disarmament, control and security of sensitive materials, facilities and expertise, is one of the main instruments foreseen by the EU to prevent, deter, halt and if possible eliminate proliferation programmes. Prolonging the EU programme, increasing co-operative threat reduction funding beyond 2006, setting up a programme of assistance are among the major instruments to promote a stable international and regional environment.

Madame President,
Italy became involved in the co-operative threat reduction at an early stage. A first bilateral agreement to enhance nuclear safety and radiological protection in the Russian nuclear destruction facilities was signed in 1993. A second agreement regarding the construction of a gas pipeline for a chemical weapons destruction facility in Russia was signed in 2000; a third agreement on the completion of the pipeline was signed in 2003. But the most conspicuous effort was the one made at Kananaskis where an Italian pledge for projects amounting to up to 1 billion Euro over ten years was undertaken by the Italian Prime Minister. As a result of this pledge Italy has become the second EU and fourth overall contributor to the Kananaskis Global Partnership. These engagements are already becoming operational. On November 5 2003, on the occasion of President Putin’s State visit to Italy, two important agreements were signed. As a result of these agreements Italy will take the lead in the construction of the chemical weapons destruction facility of Pochep and will co-operate in dismantling nuclear submarines. An overall sum of 720 million Euro will be allocated by Italy for those two projects.

Madame President,
if Italy, together with other like-minded countries, have decided to allocate such important resources to the Co-operative Threat Reduction initiative at a time of great budgetary difficulties, it is because they are convinced that this initiative will enhance international security and safety. At a time in which the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and of their delivery means is a growing threat to international peace and security and the risk that terrorists will acquire such weapons and delivery means adds a new critical dimension to this threat, the Co-operative Threat Reduction has become a concrete way to address the problems of proliferation of WMD trough effective measures of disarmament.

It is the most comprehensive and ambitious multilateral effort to eliminate weapons of mass destruction ever devised. It has a strong conceptual and operational basis, represented by the principles and the guidelines, which have been adopted. It also has an unprecedented political backing since all the G8 countries, through their leaders, have adopted this program and the EU and other members of the international community have already joined this initiative. The CTR plays a key role in the fight against terrorism since the weapons which it deals with – those which are waiting to be dismantled and which no longer play a strategic role – tend to be less protected and are therefore more vulnerable to WMD terrorism.

Through the Global Partnership, disarmament becomes not only a question of arms reduction and verification but also a matter of multilateral cooperation. Global partnership accelerated the arms reduction process and facilitated the accession to the NPT by a number of countries thus strengthening the non-proliferation regime. It also enhanced the international confidence-building process and transparency. It deals with highly sensitive materials and equipment which traditionally have been held secretly by national administrations which in the past have been confronting each other.

To conclude, Madame President, while at the CD we are discussing our future program of work and the best possible ways to enhance international disarmament, Italy wishes to draw the attention of the Conference on this reality which is relevant to the current international security environment: the Co-operative Threat reduction. Disarmament would be meaningless if states were not in the condition of effectively eliminating – through the CTR – the weapons of mass destruction they have decided to reduce. We believe that time has come for this initiative to be better known, understood, endorsed and welcomed by the International Community.