Vienna Chapter
Mr. Chairman,
On behalf of State Signatories of the Group of 77 and China, I am
pleased to see you again chairing the 22nd session of Working Group B. I
believe that under your able chairmanship and guidance, discussions will
lead to fruitful conclusions and I assure you of our full support and
cooperation.
The Group expresses its deepest condolence and sympathy to the
government and people of the Islamic republic of Iran and also to the
families and friends of the victims of the tragic earthquake in Bam. The
Group wishes to pay tribute to H.E. Ambassador Federico Urruela Prado,
Permanent Representative of Guatemala who suddenly passed away earlier
this month in Guatemala City. The Group joins the staff of CTBT in
mourning for Ms. Jane Ward dedicated Staff Council President.
The Group wishes to thank the Executive Secretary, Ambassador
Wolfgang Hoffmann, for his comprehensive written and oral reports. We
would like to express our appreciation for the diligent efforts of the PTS
in implementing the mandates of the Preparatory Commission for the
establishment of the international verification system at the Entry Into
Force of the Treaty.
Mr. Chairman,
The Group would like to express its views on the following issues,
which will be considered during the present meeting of Working Group B.
1. In considering the of guidance to the PTS for preparing the
verification related work programme and budget elements for 2005, the
Group would like to reiterate the views expressed in its previous
statements, in particular that any proposal for the verification related
work programme and budget elements for 2005 and thereafter, should be
guided by the main principles of the G-77 which have been stated in
previous occasion. Accordingly, the Group urges WGB to adjust the pace of
its work to the above-mentioned principles and in line with the budget
exercise of last year ask the PTS to prioritize and reallocate its
resources between Major Programmes, under the principle of no overall
programmatic increases.
Mr. Chairman,
2. The Group takes note of the initiative of WGB for the review of
the organizational structure of the PTS and follows closely and with great
care the informal consultation in this regard. The Group believes that the
mandate of the Prep-Com and, subsequently, the tasks of the PTS are quite
clear in accordance with the text of the establishment of the Preparatory
Commission. Carrying out the necessary preparation for the effective
implementation of the CTBT and preparation for the first session of the
Conference of the States Parties are the main tasks of the Prep-Com and
the PTS. From our point of view those tasks include two main pillars
namely political issues and technical issues. Political issues include
efforts for the EIF of the Treaty and taking into account the position of
different countries and technical issues on the establishment of the
verification system upon the EIF of the Treaty. In any attempt to
restructuring, the balance between political and technical tasks of the
PTS should be maintained. Therefore we believe that in the restructuring
of the PTS, unnecessary changes should not be made. The purposes of the
restructuring should be increasing coordination, enhancing efficiency and
possible cost efficiency in the PTS. The experiences of the PTS should be
taken into account. Should an external evaluation team be appointed to do
the restructuring, then the Group attaches utmost importance to the fair
geographical representation in the team. Close interaction of the team and
Member States is also of utmost importance so we support the establishment
of a framework for consultations between the team and States Signatories.
However, we should reiterate that this issue is very sensitive and that
recommendations can be implemented only after thorough reviewing and
decisions should be taken into account in the Working Groups and the
Prep-Com. With regard to the funding of the team, it is our view that this
exercise should be funded within available resources.
3. The Group believes that according to the resolution on the
establishment of the Prep Com, technical testing and provisional
operations, as necessary, pending the Entry Into Force (EIF) of the
Treaty, are a task of the Prep Com. The operation of IMS stations before
the EIF of the Treaty is provisional and testing in nature and only for
the purpose of evaluating the performance and data quality of IMS
stations. The Group welcomes the adoption of the guidelines for technical
testing and provisional operation of certified IMS stations, the GCI and
the IDC in the last Working Group B [CTBT/PC-19/1/AnnexII, para 13]. We
believe that the mode of operation of IMS certified stations should be
determined exclusively in the light of actual needs of testing and
maintenance of the IMS network. The legal and financial concerns of State
Signatories should also be duly taken into account during the negotiation
of contracts for post certification activities. We welcome the decision of
Working Group B in its 21st session, as stipulated in para 10-12 of
CTBT/WGB-21/1, on the proposed system-wide performance test. We are of the
view that this test should be carried out when the majority of the IMS
stations, especially certified stations, are in place and connected to the
IDC and after enough preparation for this wide scale test had been made by
the PTS. The only purpose of this test is to evaluate the performance of
the whole system. We take note of the fact that Working Group B in its
latest meeting (para 12 of CTBT/WGB-21/1) agreed that "the schedule
for the phases of wide scale testing as well as their duration should be
flexible". However, we believe that the test should be done in a very
limited timeframe, taking into account the sole purpose of testing the
system.
4. The Group attaches great importance to the National Data Centers
(NDCs) and welcomes the establishment of joint theme Task of NDC in the
framework of Working Group B and supports the main objectives of this Task
as articulated by its distinguished task leader in the report of last WGB.
We believe that the PTS should play a more active role in promoting the
NDCs of developing countries especially in providing hardware and
software. More training courses for NDCs are required to provide the
necessary capabilities for the States Signatories, especially for
developing countries, to take greater advantage of the data, products and
services of the IDC. In this regard we welcome the initiative of the PTS
to convene 3 regional training courses on the NDC data analysis for
regional groups of the G-77. The Group encourages wider participation of
the developing countries in NDC and IDC training courses.
5. The Group believes that all the elements of the verification
regime of the treaty including IMS, IDC and OSI, are important and in this
regard attaches great importance to a balanced approach dealing with all
those elements. Due to the complexity of the OSI issues, active
participation of all members is important. From our point of view the
elaboration of the draft OSI Operational Manual, based on the Initial
Draft Rolling Text (IDRT), remains a priority task for all members of the
Commission. We appreciate the efforts of the PTS in supporting the
elaboration of the draft On-Site Inspection (OSI) Operational Manual,
especially the contribution of the PTS in chapter 6 on inspection of
underground events, search logic, software checking, point of entry and
base camp activities. We ask for the continuation and increased
contribution of the PTS, based on the experience of workshops, tabletop
exercises and field experiments, to the discussion of draft OSI
Operational Manual.
From our point of view, adequate resources should be allocated to the
OSI major program in order to enable the necessary preparations for the
establishment of the OSI regime at Entry Into Force of the Treaty. We
believe that the report which has been prepared by the External Evaluation
Team of the OSI (CTBT/WGB-21/INF.5), contains many important
recommendations for further improving the functionality and effectiveness
of the OSI Major Programme, so we would like to ask the WGB to discuss and
consider this report in full and with great care, as well as the response
of the PTS in this regard.
We take note with appreciation of the convening of the ninth OSI
Workshop, the third tabletop exercise on managed access in Snezhinsk,
Russian Federation, and the fourth Experimental Advanced Course for the
visual observation and survey sub-team in Paris. To ensure that the
lessons from operational activities are not lost, we welcome the
initiative of the PTS to recording them carefully in a special database of
OSI lessons learned.
6. In accordance with the provisions of the Treaty, the text on the
establishment of the Prep Com and the development of the work of the PTS,
we believe that adopting a Confidentiality Policy for the PTS is a real
and urgent need. The confidentiality policy should create a strict regime
for handling all data and information available to the PTS and should not
be limited to the procedures of the PTS in classification of the
information. In this regard, we take note of the paper of the PTS on its
policies and procedures in handling the sensitive information in document
CTBT/PTS/INF.614. This document could be a basis for further discussion.
However, we believe that a comprehensive approach, including definition of
information, list of types of information available to the PTS, criteria
for the classification and declassification, Procedures and Modalities for
handling the classified information, changing the Classification or
Designation of Information, roles and responsibilities of States
Signatories, is necessary for the confidentiality policy of the PTS. We
believe that more time should be allocated in WGB discussions to this
important task.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
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