Mr. President,

Your election to the Chair fills us with confidence that the purpose of this meeting will be achieved. This flows from our acknowledgement of your legendary contribution to the area of disarmament. We should like to place on record our appreciation to the Under-Secretary-General, Jayanta Dhanapala for his tireless efforts and to Executive Secretary Ambassador Wolfgang Hoffman, an old friend from my days in Geneva and Vienna, for his leadership of the Commission. The Secretary-General's comments this morning were inspiring, and a great source of encouragement. Ambassador Abe is to be thanked for his report.

We are gathered here at a time when the sense of security in this country as well as in many others has been violated like never before. The international dimension of this threat to security has heightened concerns all around the globe. Apprehensions about both conventional and nuclear threats have come to the fore in our minds. No doubt, there is a need for new thinking in approaching issues relating to nuclear disarmament and non?proliferation.
 

Mr. President,

September 24, 1996 marked an important watershed with the opening for signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. The Treaty has attracted Bangladesh's attention & support from the very outset. We were in the forefront among its enthusiasts in the Conference on Disarmament during the negotiations. I myself served on the very first Bureau as a Regional Vice-Chair. Being among the first signatories and subsequently one of the early ratifiers of the Treaty, we have invested heavily in these efforts with a view to achieving the non-proliferation objectives of the international community. We are convinced now, as we were then, about the crucial significance of the Treaty ? by outlawing tests and thus preventing the development of new, more advanced weapons by nuclear weapon states. We recognize also the potential of the Treaty to constrain the development of such weapons by non-nuclear states.

At this point, I should like to focus on some important aspects of the Treaty. First and foremost, the CTBT constitutes an essential part of the NWS/ obligations under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty to end the arms race and to pursue nuclear disarmament. The contractual aspect of this issue is of immense importance to those non-nuclear states who have sign up the nuclear option once for all. This must be appreciated in the proper context of Article VI of the NPT. Second, it attempts to de-emphasize and minimize the importance of nuclear weapons for national security. Again, this is a very important concept for the non-nuclear states. And finally, the Treaty provides for building an elaborate global infrastructure on which a substantial verification regime will be founded to meet the verification requirements of the Treaty. We also deem it important that the Treaty has so far encouraged non-signatory countries to desist from nuclear testing. The call by the 2000 NPT Review Conference for a moratorium on testing until the CTBT enters into force is significant in this regard. Bangladesh attaches high importance to all these aspects.
 

Mr. President,

As I said in the beginning, we must begin to think of a new security paradigm based on enhanced international cooperation. Nuclear disarmament has assumed particular significance in this context. We believe the solidarity exhibited by the international community in combating international terrorism should be available for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation as well.
 

Mr. President,

We want to express our concern that after five years of its opening for signature, the Treaty has not entered into force. This delay is regrettable; it has also proved to be crucial in the context of important developments in some regions of the world. We associate ourselves with the call to strengthen efforts to promote the entry into force of the Treaty at the earliest possible date. Those yet to ratify, hopefully will see the logic of doing so soon. We must encourage the widest possible participation. A method must be evolved to assist those poor countries who share the spirit of the cause but find the financial cost high. Bangladesh has argued this point long, and persistently.

The vision of a nuclear-free world is one, we are intellectually persuaded, that is realizable. The progress of the process may be slow, but not necessarily, fraught with despair, as the number of new adhering States increases. We encourage the sustained endeavors of the global community, evident in the work of this Conference, to bring our aspirations to fruition, and express our hope and confidence that the Treaty will, before long, enter into force. In this Bangladesh will extend to you every cooperation.