[Disarmament] Conference on Disarmament

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Thank you, Mr. President.

At the outset, allow me to congratulate you most warmely on the assumption of your functions. As outgoing and incoming Presidencies of the Conference, we have been in close consultations over the past months - and this makes me more than confident that you will preside over the resumption of our work with great engagement and circumspection. Please rest assured of my delegation's continued support to you and your P6 colleagues throughout this year.

Austria fully endorses the statement delivered by Spain on behalf of the European Union. Allow me, in addition, some more personal remarks regarding the resumption of our work.

2009 entered history as the year with the breakthrough on a Programme of Work, but equally, no subsequent work. As delegates to the Conference on Disarmament, it is ou common duty to prevent this from happening again and to prevent the CD from sliding back into its deadlock.

In my concluding remarks to last year's session, I identified some elements which had proven useful for our work, and let me summarize them briefly:

• close cooperation among the P-6;
• interactive and transparent consultations among all delegations, which constitutes a confidence building measure; and
• increased engagement of civil society and stronger interaction with them: experts, non-governmental organization, and also the media - and we certainly appreciate and support the suggestion just made by Canada.

It is our sincere hope that these elements will continue to guide our work also this year. We are convinced of the need not only to maintain and strenthen the momentum of the Conference, but also of raising to the expectations of the General Assembly, the Security Council and, even more importantly, of those created in the wider political environment, which ave just been summarized so eloquently by Mexico.

Therefore, we expect the Conference to swiftly adopt, and implement, a Programme of Work, based on the consensus of 29 May 2009.

Already in the meantime, my delegation would appreciate the opening of structured, substantive work around the core issues of ou aganda, as contained in CD/1864.

In concluding, Mr. President, I would like to wish this year's P6 - Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria and Cameroon - best of success.

Thank you.