Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, addressing the Conference on Disarmament (CD) on Tuesday (05 March 2013), expressed the disappointment of Sri Lanka over the failure of the CD to reach consensus on its Programme of Work. He urged Member States to make concerted efforts to reach an early agreement on the Programme of Work. Ambassador Aryasinha highlighted that Nuclear Disarmament remains the highest priority of Sri Lanka in the work of the CD and that its international treaty obligations undertaken in the field of Disarmament are an indication of the country’s commitment to the elimination of the threat posed by nuclear weapons. Emphasizing the need to reach an early agreement on a universal, unconditional and legally binding instrument to assure non-nuclear weapon states against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, Ambassador Aryasinha said it is imperative to start negotiations for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons with a specific time frame.
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