UN welcome SL decision to advance work of 'Conference on Disarmament'

United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres has welcomed a decision adopted under Sri Lanka’s Presidency to advance work of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. The Conference on Disarmament was presided over by Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha Ariyasinha is Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva. "A decision was adopted to establish five subsidiary bodies to discuss all items in its agenda, with a view to advance the substantive work of the Conference", said the Sri Lankan mission in Geneva. The decision described as a “well-brokered balance between flexibility and safeguards and offered a framework for a more focused and continued debate on core issues”, seeks to bring the CD back to its original mandate of negotiating disarmament instruments. Since its negotiation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996, the CD is yet to negotiate any new treaty. In a statement released, the Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said “The Secretary-General commends the Members of the Conference for achieving this positive step, which he hopes will lead to resumption of negotiations on effective measures for disarmament and arms control."