STATEMENT

by

H.E. Yurii KLYMENKO

Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Office and other International Organizations in Geneva

Head of the Delegation of Ukraine to the Conference on Disarmament

(Geneva, 05.03.2014)

 

Mr. President,

Distinguished delegates,

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

First of all, I would like to wholeheartedly thank those high dignitaries and delegations who expressed solidarity with Ukraine in these very challenging times for her and called for the importance of strict adherence to international law and commitments.

In the exercise of the Rule 30 of the Rules of procedure of the Conference on Disarmament my delegation would like to elaborate further on the issues raised in its statement, which was delivered on March 3, 2014.

Leaving the “politicized” issues related to the current situation in Ukraine, as they were qualified by the Russian delegation, to the UN Security Council, I would like to draw the delegations’ attention exclusively to the pressing matters which are of relevance to our work in the CD.

The non-proliferation regime, established by the NPT – one of the landmark disarmament instruments produced by the CD, and negative security assurances, encompassed in the Budapest memorandum of 1994 - part of a wider NPT framework, are, beyond all doubt, of particular significance for our forum and stand in the core of its agenda.

I, therefore, would like to draw your attention to the following Appeal of Ukraine to the International Community.

 

“Сurrent situation in Ukraine provokes misbalance in the existing international security system and can lead to the violation of the NPT.  

20 years ago Ukraine became a member of this regime exclusively under certain conditions. These conditions envisaged granting security assurances to Ukraine by the 5 nuclear states in connection with Ukraine’s joining the NPT as a non-nuclear state. On the 5th of December 1994 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and the Russian Federation signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances with Ukraine. The French Republic and the People’s Republic of China supported the Memorandum by signing separate declarations. 

During its NPT membership Ukraine has been thoroughly implementing all provisions of the document. Moreover, Ukraine has taken and successfully fulfilled additional obligations in the Nuclear Security Summit framework by getting rid of all its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.

In 2009 Ukraine raised the issue of acquiring legally-binding security assurances with the aim to reinforce the Budapest Memorandum. Reluctance of the P5 states to undertake such a step was then justified by the absence of a real threat to the territorial integrity of Ukraine and inviolability of its state borders. The Guarantor States have also referred to the comprehensive bilateral agreements with Ukraine.

Today we witness the situation when the Russian Federation attempts to undermine the NPT regime by violating the Budapest Memorandum.

Non-adherence of one Guarantor State – the Russian Federation - to its commitments under the Budapest Memorandum by the military invasion in Ukraine creates situation when the threshold states can consider international legal instruments as insufficient to ensure security, territorial integrity and inviolability of their borders.

Thus, current developments in Ukraine will define future relations of the international community with the states which can choose the nuclear option.  

In this regard Ukraine continues to urge its security Guarantor States under the Budapest Memorandum – the NPT nuclear states – to take immediate steps and exert additional pressure on the invader with the aim to preserve the Treaty and avoid mass violations of the NPT, first of all by the threshold states.

We also urge all non-nuclear NPT states to influence the Russian Federation in all possible ways in this regard.

The existing circumstances require immediate effective actions.”

 

I thank you.