Conference on Disarmament urged to speed work on chemical bans.

As the Conference on Disarmament opened its 1990 session on 6 February, I heard a renewed appeal from Secretary-General javier Perez de Cuellar to intensify negotiations on an international convention banning chemical weapons. Political consensus in 1989 had advanced in the international community on the urgent need to agree on such a document, he said. The Secretary-General told the 40-member Geneva-based body that new opportunities were available to pursue "more meaningful measures in the field of arms limitations and disarmament". The wide spectrum of bilateral and multilateral negotiations under way generated hope that the current trend would become irreversible, allowing the process of disarmament to proceed at a faster pace. A complete ban on nuclear-test explosions, he said, could pave the way to nuclear disarmament and d the world of the nuclear ri menace. The Conference had an irreplaceable role to play in that respect; it could not renounce its responsibilities as to considering issues of nuclear disarmament and prevention of nuclear war. Emeka Ayo Azikiwe of Nigeria, Conference President for March, recalled that over the years several disarmament agreements had been concluded within the multilateral disarmament negotiating forum, all of them in the context of the Conference of the 18-Nation Committee on Disarmament and the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament. The present Conference had not yet been able to achieve similar results. But never since 1962 had there been "a situation so rich in opportunities for successful disarmament negotiations", he declared. During February and March, the Conference re-established four ad hoc committees to deal with issues related to chemical weapons, radiological weapons, prevention of an arms race in outer space and international arrangements to assure non-nuclearweapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. On 29 March, it decided that informal meetings would be held in 1990 on issues related to cessation of the nuclear-arms race and nuclear disarmament, and prevention of nuclear war. President Azlkiwe described those meetings as "a reflection of the beginning of adjustments in the Conference to the new international situation". He had prepared a list of some 20 topics to facilitate a structured discussion at the meetings.

The Conference did not reach agreement on how to deal with the agenda item on a nuclear-test ban.

Sweden again proposed adding an item on prevention of incidents on the high seas. It also favoured negotiations on sea-borne nuclear weapons, naval confidence-building measures and modernization of the laws of sea warfare. Pakistan proposed a new item on the regional dimension of disarmament.

Hendrik Wagenmakers of the Netherlands, President for February, described the unprecedented high number of non-members participating in Conference work as a significant step towards securing universal participation in the elaboration and acceptance of any agreement concluded in the Conference.

The Conference, the world's single forum for multilateral disarmament negotiations, holds a two part session each year, the first part from February through April and the second from june through August. Its ad hoc committees try to elaborate new instruments in the field of arms limitation and disarmament. Finishing touches'

The Ad Hoc Committee on Chemical Weapons, meeting in Geneva from 16 january to 1 February, continued work on a draft convention banning development, production and stockpiling of chemical weapons and calling for their destruction.

Committee Chairman Pierre Morel of France said the body had put the finishing touches" on some texts, including a protocol on inspection procedures, which replaces guidelines on the international inspectorate. The text outlines a code regulating practical arrangements for inspections, the precise conduct of inspectors and the obligations of States.

Articles relating to duration and withdrawal, deposit of instruments of ratification and accession, and languages and authentic texts were completed. The Committee defined the composition and functions of the scientific advisory board and revised a text dealing with specific conditions governing the limited production of certain types of prohibited chemicals. Also considered were questions of challenge inspections and security during the destruction period.

Chairman Morel believed the document should be regarded as "a whole which has already begun to settle into coherence and balance".

The German Democratic Republic proposed convening a meeting of the Conference at the foreign minister level in order to give "a powerful boost" to the final drafting of the chemical weapons convention.

The Netherlands, Austria and Belgium reiterated their offers to host the proposed Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to be established under a future convention. Bilateral progress

The Soviet Union and the United States transmitted to the Conference joint documents adopted at meetings in Wyoming, United States, on 23 September 1989 and in Moscow on 10 February 1990.

In joint statements, the two States:

Reiterated their commitment to conclude and bring into force a chemical weapons convention as soon as possible;

Announced their intention, simultancous with negotiations on a global ban, to work out a bilateral agreement on reciprocal obligations, pending the international convention, including the destruction of the bulk of their chemical weapons stocks to equal low levels;

As part of that agreement, would co-operate on safe destruction technology;

Agreed to reciprocal visits to monitor destruction operations of the other side, and to the exchange of information on past, current and planned destruction activities;

0 Committed themselves to reduce further their chemical weapons stocks down to a very small fraction of present holdings during the first eight years after a chemical weapons convention entered into force, and to complete elimination during the subsequent two years, if possible;

Agreed that, upon a convention's entry into force, it should provide for a halt to all chemical weapons production; and

Agreed to work out common principles that would guide their efforts to prevent the proliferation of chemical weapons.

The two countries also signed a memorandum of understanding in Wyoming regarding a two-phase bilateral verification experiment and data exchange. Phase one, already under way, involves the exchange of general data on each side's chemical weapons capabilities and a series of visits to relevant military and civil facilities on their respective territories. In phase two, the nations would exchange more detailed data and permit on-site inspections to verify the accuracy of information exchanged.