STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR ANUPAM RAY AT THE GROUP OF GOVERNMENTAL EXPERTS ON EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE AREA OF LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPONS SYSTEM, GENEVA, MARCH 4, 2024
Mr. President,
India congratulates you on your taking over the leadership of this very important process. We have complete faith in you and look forward to working with you.
We would also like to record our appreciation of the work of Ambassador Flavio Soares Damico.
I would like to make six points:
1. My delegation has noted how you propose to structure the discussions in this new phase of the GGEs work and is able to support your ideas. We have found your guiding questions useful and will provide substantive inputs,
2. This GGE should build on its previous work. We believe that its accomplishments in generating concepts and a lexicon that captures some of the elusive characteristics of emerging technologies and their impacts are considerable. This needs to be squarely acknowledged, used as a basis for further work, incorporated in the elements of any possible instrument, and be a primary focus for the future work of this GGE.
3. This GGE meets in a new military reality - in the midst of armed conflict and war. The military reality is that there appears to be deployment and use, on an unprecedented scale, of weapons and weapons systems incorporating emerging technologies which impart autonomous characteristics. The military reality also is that further development, deployment and use of such weapons and weapons systems can be anticipated. Given this reality, my delegation believes more strongly than ever that the CCW, which balances military necessity with the humanitarian imperative, is the best platform for discussions on this issue.
The discussion of possible prohibitions and restrictions on these emerging technologies as applied to warfare, to be credible, needs to be connected to this military reality.
4. We live in a fragmenting world. We have splinternets behind firewalls. We have fragmented trading and financial systems. My delegation believes that the discussions on the subject of this GGEs mandate should not contribute to afragmentation of the normative sphere. It is important for all to acknowledge that we inhabit differing security realities. My delegation believes that the purpose of this GGE and this convention is to find common ground that takes into account the concerns of all. The proceedings of this meetings should not be used to create the ground for generating parallel sets of rules. This would contribute to a further weakening of the multilateral system.
5. India, as a matter of principle, favours legally binding instruments in the sphere of arms control and disarmament. We would, with reference to the mandate of the GGE, like to note that much more work is required before meaningful negotiations can commence on a legally binding instrument.
6. We have already stated that we can support a politically binding instrument based on the Guiding Principles. We believe that these Guiding Principles and previous reports contain a powerful norm - that emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems are not exempt from the prohibitions, restrictions and limitations that are contained in international humanitarian law.
