A/42/PV.84 General Assembly

I request the Rapporteur of the First Committee, Mr. Kazimierz 'l'omaszewski of poland, to present the reports of the Fir st Commi ttee on the items relating to disarmament in one sta tement. Mr. TCMASZEWSKI (Poland), Rapporteur of the First Committee: It is a great pleasure and honour for me to present to the General Assembly the reports of the First Committee on its work concerning the disarmament questions under agenda items 48 to 69. The reports before the General Assembly under those agenda items are contained in oocuments A/42/737 to 750, A/42/669 and /\dd.l, and A/42/75l to 757, respectil1ely. In this exmnection, I wish to inform members that the reports of the First Committee concerning the question of Antarctica, agenda item 70, will be taken up by the Assembly th is afternoon, and the repor ts on in ternational secur i ty, agenda (Mr. Tomaszewski, Rap??rteur, First Commit tee) items 71 to 73, will be taken up at a later meeting of the General Assemly. All the items on disarmament were included in the agenda of the forty-second session of the Assembly in pursuance of previous General Assemly resolutions. The continuing large number of agenda items on disarmament issues once again reflected the increasing concern of Member States over world peace and international security and their endeavour to contribute towards achieving disarmament. As at previous sessions, we conducted the general debate on disarmament items in three Ii1ases. Phase one covered the general debate on all· disarmament items. Phase two was devoted to discuss ion on speci fie disarmamen t items without precluding the continuation of the general debate, as necessary. The Commi t tee devoted 29 meetings to the two phases of the general debate dur ing the period of three weeks from 12 October to 3 November. Thereafter, the Committee proceeded to the third phase under disarmament questions, namely consideration of and action on draft proposals submitted on disarmament items. This period, which encompassed about two weeks, also included informal consultations conducted among delega tions wi th a view to finding areas of convergence wherever possible. In the course of the general debate a large number of delegations particip'ited in the deliberations, which this year took place against the backdrop of encouraging developmen ts 0 f historic propor tions in view of sigoi ficant agreemen ts between the two major Powers. Among those subjects, particular concern was again centred on the cessation of the nuclear-arms race and nuclear disarmament, bilateral negotiations on nuclear weapons, prevention of nuclear war, a nuclear-test ban, prevention of an arms race in outer space, chemical weapons, and conventional disarmament. In addition, a large number of speakers stressed the importance of the questions of verification in all its aspects and of confidence-building measures. The debate on disarmament questions at this session took place in a businesslike and constructive manner and a quite relaxed political atmosphere, owing to a great extent to the imprOl1ed international relations, particularly between the two major PCMers, including the forthcoming bilateral summit meeting in Washington O. C. for the signing of a treaty on intermediate-range and shorter-range nuclear missiles, as well as negotiating on strategic arms reduction. In this connection, delegations may recall that a draft decision on bilateral nuclear-arms negotiations, approved by the Committee, was submitted separately to the Assembly in advance, and was adopted by the Assembly at its 46th meeting, on 21 October, urging ear ly and effective agreements on intermediate-range nuclear forces and drastic reductions in stra tegic nuclear weapons. However, in welcoming the positive move in bilateral negotiations in the nuclear field, concern and alarm were also expressed by many speakers wi th respect to the con tinuing arms race in other areas, including space weapons, which clearly underscored the importance of sparing no effort to keep it from accelerating further and to reverse it. During the course of the Committee's work, 77 draft resolutions and two draft decisions on var ious disarmament issues were submitted for consideration. As in previous years, the Committee decided to group the draft resolutions into clusters so as to facilitate the adoption of the large nuntler of draft resolutions effectively in accordance with its prograllDl\e of work. In the course of the Committee's consideration of and action on the 77 draft resolutions and two draft decisions, 16 of them were not pressed to a vote. The Committee thus adopted 25 drafts on disarmament issues without a vote and 38 draft resolutions with recorded votes - a total of 62 draft resolutions and one decision, at the current sess ion. Th is number is slightly less than the nunber adopted last year. Among the 63 drafts adopted, there are 23 dealing with the question of nuclear disarmament, including prevention of nuclear war, nuclear-test ban, bilateral negotiations on nuclear weapons, nuclear-arms freeze, security assurances for non-nuclear-weapons States and nuclear-weapon-free zones. The large nurrber 0 f draft resolutions on the subject fully demonstrate the importance of the issues of nuclear weapons. With regard to other disarmament questions, three draft resolutions were adopted on chemical and biological weapons, five draft resolutions on conventional disarmament, including the naval arms race, one draft resolution dealing with the prevention of an arms race in outer space, three draft resolutions relating to the question of ver ification and 29 draft resolutions regarding all the other ques tions, including the Con ference on Disarmament, the Disarmament Commiss ion, the 1 ndian CX::ean as a zone of peace, the relationship between disarmament and development, fellowship programme, reduction of military budgets, and World Disarmament Campaign. It should be pointed out in particular that the Committee decided to recolmlend that the third special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament be convened from 31 May to 25 June 1988. Moreover, the Committee continued at the current session to consider the question of how to improve its working methods, including the streamlining of the Committee's agenda, taking into account suggestions made by former Chairmen of the Committee as well as recommendations on the subject in the report of the Disarmament Commission this year. everal rounds of open-ended consultations were held on the subject and a specific raft resolution in this regard was adopted. The reports of the First Committee before the Assembly indicate in detail the Ictions taken regarding each item and the results of the voting on the draft :esolutions approved. It is not necessary for me to elaborate on them. I merely ~ish to point out that among these reports, document A/42/677 was not included in the reports under items 51 and 52, as contained in documents A/42/740 and A/42/741, hecause that document was issued after the respective reports were submitted for processing. I also wish to draw the Assembly's attention to a small correction as regards draft resolution A/C. 1/42/L.2/Rev. 1. It had been the firm intention of the sponsors that, as in every other relevant part of its original version and its revised draft, the word "their" should be present between the words III reduce" and "strategic" in operative paragraph 3. However, because of a purely technical slip at the time of submission of the draft resolution, that word was inadvertently not included in the text of A/C. 1/42/L.2/Rev. 1. The sponsors would therefore like the vote on the draft resolution recommended by the First Committee, draft resolution A of document A/42/669/Add.l, to be taken with the word "their" inserted in operative paragraph 3, between the words "reduce" and "strategic". From my consultations, I believe there will be no objection to this. In conclusion, I wish to emphasize that the Committee has had a constructive dialogue on all disarmament auestions ranging over a broad spectrum of international issues. ~he deliberations in the First Committee over the past few weeks fully reflected the general recognition that the united Nations has a central delegations have fully committed themselves to a continued interest in achieving general and complete disarmament under effective international oontroL Their actions on various disarmament items in the Committee have demonstrated a genuine wish to search for practical and effective measures and approaches to preserve and prorrote in terna tional peace and securi ty. With these brief remarks I have the honour to submit the recommendations of the First Committee in its reports to the General Assent>ly for adoption. The PRES ID ENT (in terpreta tion from Russian) ~ If ther e is no proposal under rule 66 of the rules of procedure, I shall take it that the General Assembly decides not to discuss the reports of the First Committee that are before it this morn ing. It was so decided. The PRESIDENT (interpretation from Russian) ~ statements will therefore be limited to e>cplanations of vote. The positions of delegations regarding the various recommendations of the First Committee have been made clear in the Committee and are reflected in the relevant official records. May I remind ment>ers that under paragraph 7 of decision 34/401, the General Assembly agreed that~ "When the same draft resolution is considereo in a Main Committee and in plenary meeting, a delegation should, as far as possible, explain its vote only once, Le., either in the Committee or in plenary meeting unless that delegation's vote in plenary meeting is different from its vote in the Commi t tee. " May I also remind member s that in accordance with decis ion 34/401, explanations of vote are limited to 10 minutes and should be made by delegations from their seats. We turn now to the report of the First Committee on agenda item 48 entitled "Implementation of General Assembly resolution 41/45 concerning the signature and ratification of Ad~itional Protocol I of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (Treaty of Tlatelolco)". I reauest representatives to turn to the draft resolution recommended by the First Committee in paragraph 7 of its report (A/42/737). A recorded vote has been reauested. A recorded vote was taken. In favour: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czechoslovakia, Democratic Kampuchea, Democratic Yemen, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eauatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, German Democratic Republic, Germany, Federal Republic of, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran (tslamic Republic of), Iraa, Ireland, Israel, Italy, jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, MaId ives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambiaue, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, portugal, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, saint Vincent and the G~enadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Syrian A~ab Republic, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist RepUblic, Union of Soviet Socialist RepUblics, united Arah Emirates, united Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, united RepUblic of Tanzania, united states of America, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Warn, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Zaire, Zamhia, Zimbabwe Against: None ~bstaining: Argentina, Central ~frican Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, France, Guinea, Guyana The draft resolution ~as adopted by 147 votes to none, with 7 abstentions (resolution 42/25).