Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 30 Oct 1996

Vol. 470 No. 7

Written Answers. - Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

Kathleen Lynch

Ceist:

62 Kathleen Lynch asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the progress, if any, made by the ad hoc group established by the Special Conference of States parties to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention; the priorities which he has identified in the context of the fourth review conference due to take place in November 1996; when a draft verification Protocol will be ready for adoption; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20017/96]

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Spring)

In my reply to a similar question from the Deputy on 30 May 1996, I indicated that the period of the Irish Presidency of the EU could be crucial to the efforts to strengthen the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, BTWC. We have worked intensively during our Presidency to achieve progress in the negotiations in the ad hoc group which has been established to negotiate an effective legally binding verification Protocol to the Convention. The Fourth Review Conference of the BTWC beginning on 25 November will provide an opportunity for States Parties to the Convention to take stock of this progress and to give a further impetus to the negotiations.

As I anticipated in my earlier reply, the EU on 25 June 1996 adopted a common position concerning preparations for the Fourth Review Conference. The objective of this common position is to encourage and support the efforts to strengthen the BTWC by promoting its universality, seeking the endorsement by the Fourth Review Conference of the results to date of the ad hoc group, supporting the intensification of that group's work irrespective of other priorities on the international disarmament agenda and promoting a successful conclusion to these negotiations no later than the middle of 1998. President Clinton, in his address to the 51st session of the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September, also supported a target date of 1998 for the completion of the negotiations and I welcome this development.

Pursuant to the common position, the EU Troika carried out démarches in over 30 countries during August and September to canvass their support for the Union's position in advance of the Fourth Review Conference.

At the July and September meetings of thead hoc group, the Irish Presidency took a series of initiatives aimed at consolidating the strong contribution of the Union to the group's work. Six technical papers setting out the EU's position on key elements of the verification regime under negotiation were tabled by the Union in July. At the September meeting, which inter alia focused on the group's work programme for 1997 and on its report to the Fourth Review Conference, the Presidency actively promoted the EU's view that the work of the group needed to be intensified.

Following protracted discussions, thead hoc group agreed to intensify its work in 1997, and has scheduled nine weeks of negotiations in the first nine months of 1997. This compares favourably with a total of eight weeks of substantive discussions since the group was established in 1994. In addition, the report of the group to the Fourth Review Conference notes that the group has now identified the potential framework and elements of a verification Protocol. These are attached to the report of the September session of the group and will form the basis of the negotiations in 1997.

In the lead up to the Fourth Review Conference the Irish Presidency will continue its strenuous efforts to make further progress towards the aims outlined in the EU's Common Position.