G21 emphasises need for nuclear disarmament

Ambassador Duong Chi Dung, head of the Vietnamese mission in Geneva

Ambassador Duong Chi Dung, head of the Vietnamese mission in Geneva, on behalf of G21 nations, made the statement at a plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament in Switzerland on June 26.

In his speech, Dung said the G21 raised concern about the dangers posed by nuclear weapons to human survival and underlined the responsibility of nuclear states to dismantle the weapons.

The group recognised and welcomed recent positive developments in the efforts of the international community to build a nuclear-free world, including the establishment of nuclear-free zones and negotiations for the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty 2017.

However, the G21 expressed concern over the fact that many countries still give prominence to nuclear weapons in security theories while some break the consensus of establishing the Middle East region without nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. The elimination of nuclear weapons remains a slow process.

The group proposed nuclear states reaffirm their clear commitment to the total elimination of nuclear weapons, remove the role of nuclear weapons in security theories and enact measures to mitigate nuclear risks.

It called for negotiations on a general, unconditional and legally binding instrument to ensure that nuclear-free countries are not threatened or attacked by nuclear weapons, and on a treaty on the prohibition of development, production, stockpiling, use or threat to use nuclear weapons.

Vietnam is playing the role of G21 coordinator at the Conference on Disarmament (CD) from June 25 to August 19, 2018.

The G21 is one of the four regional groups of the CD with 33 member countries from the Non-Aligned Movement. The other three groups include Eastern Europe (six members), the western group (25 members) and the Group of One (China).

The coordinator of the G21 group rotates following the alphabetical membership list.

Vietnam will chair the conference from late June 2019 to mid-August 2019. The country played this role from January to February 2009.