Statement by Ambassador (Dr.) Pankaj Sharma, Permanent Representative of India to the Conference on Disarmament during the Plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament on May 28, 2019

Mr. President,

At the outset, I would like to congratulate you on assumption of the Presidency of the Conference on Disarmament and pledge my delegation’s support to your efforts to steer our deliberations to a successful outcome.  In accordance with Rule 29 of the CD’s Rules of Procedure, it is indeed the responsibility of the Presidency of the CD to draw up a Programmeof Work.  Therefore, we would like to endorse your approach to establish a Programme of Work. 

In this context, we would like to recall and thank the distinguished Presidencies of Ukraine and UK for drawing up a Programme of Work and their efforts in that direction.  We had made considerable progress on various issues including the possibility of establishing Subsidiary Bodies on the core agenda items, pending an agreement on the Programme of Work.  We believe that we could resume our discussions from that point and try to explore a common ground to arrive at a consensus decision to establish a Programme of Work. We will share our detailed comments once you share your draft Programme of Work. 

My delegation looks forward to engaging with you and fellow member States to achieve our collective goals in accordance with the mandate of the Conference on Disarmament.

I thank you Mr. President.