During the first CD plenary meeting the President of the Conference, Permanent Representative of Ukraine in Geneva Yurii Klymenko, emphasised that the delegation of Ukraine would make consistent efforts to find mutually acceptable approaches for the Member States to unblock the substantive work of the Conference. In this vein, the Ukrainian delegation will propose for the consideration of the forum a draft of a balanced and comprehensive Program of Work of the CD, which will include negotiation and discussion mandates on all core issues of the agenda of the Conference.

Furthermore, Y.Klymenko outlined Ukraine's national priorities in the fields of arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, focusing, inter alia, on the need to develop and adopt a legally binding international agreement to replace the Budapest Memorandum, which was violated by the Russian Federation."This agreement should include reliable guarantees of peace and security – up to military support in case of threat to territorial integrity. Among other, the agreement should include provisions on the response procedure by the international community in case of violation of the sovereignty of a non-nuclear stateby a nuclear one," said the Permanent Representative of Ukraine. 

In this context, Y.Klymenko has noted that Ukraine continues to support the concept of Negative Security Assurances as one of practical elements of ensuring the non-proliferation regime. Moreover, he has underscored that our state stands for the universalisation and imminent entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, as well as the commencement of negotiations to elaborate and conclude The Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty. Also, the Ukrainian side believes that the CD must pay close attention to new and emerging challenges in the field of international security, related, in particular, to offensive cyber capabilities, weaponization of artificial intelligence, as well as the use of life sciences’ achievements for military purposes. 

During the first plenary meeting the Member States adopted the agenda of the 2019 CD session and approved the decision on the participation of observer states in the work of the Conference.