Disarmament issues discussed in Geneva

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ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Kazakhstan's Permanent Representation Office at the UN in Geneva together with London University held an annual round table with students and representatives of diplomatic missions on the subject of "Development of New Weapon Technologies and Disarmament: Challenges and Opportunities", Kazinform refers to the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan.     

Zhanar Aitzhanova, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan in Geneva, underlined the importance of adoption of international response measures against the emerging challenges and threats associated with modernization of modern nuclear weapon systems and development of artificial intellect and cyber security issues.

Zhanar Aitzhanova emphasized the speech of President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the UN Security Council on January 18, 2018 who stated that "the current potential of the scientific and technological progress as well as realias of globalization make nonproliferation the matter of survival of the mankind".

"In this regard it is important to develop and adopt mandatory international documents prohibiting scientific application of scientific discoveries in creation of new kinds of mass destruction weapon. As the Manifest "The World. The XXI Century" reads, the UN should create a register of scientific discoveries which might be used for development and sophistication of mass destruction weapon", Zhanar Aitzhanova said.

Michael Møller, General Director of the UN Department in Geneva and General Secretary of the Conference for Disarmament, noted the necessity to study new technologies and their impact on the nature of future conflicts.  According to Møller, the Conference for Disarmament, despite its current crisis condition, has a chance to give a new impulse to the disarmament process in a broader format.

The experts invited to the meeting told about the modern tendencies in the latest scientific developments which are adopted by military and industrial complexes of the world leading countries and assessed potential threats to the regime of disarmament and nonproliferation.

Brazilian Ambassador in the Conference for Disarmament and Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations Gulhierme de Aguiar Patriota told about his countries' disarmament initiatives and approaches towards new technologies.   

Director of Geneva Department of Pugwash movement of scientists Sergey Batsanov warned of the threats posed by modernization of nuclear weapon, especially in the current conditions of international tension. He underlined the words of Nursultan Nazarbayev expressed during the meeting of the UNSC that the international political life needs to return trust and dialogue.

Deputy Permanent Representative of Germany in Disarmament Conference Toralf Pilz and acting Director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research Kerstin Vignard threw light on development of autonomous systems of lethal weapons and available ways to control this problem.

According to Vignard, new technologies always have a potential for new vulnerabilities and it is unlikely that there will be created a totally non-vulnerable system.

In total the participants of the meeting thanked Kazakhstan for the opportunity to discuss the topical problems of impact of the scientific progress on preservation of peace and security and expressed confidence that this discussion will help develop control mechanisms and strengthen disarmament and non-proliferation regime.

The meeting was attended by about 120 students of London University, representatives of UN member countries and observers including experts of scientific and research centers and NGOs.

 

 

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