Vienna Chapter
Mr. Chairman,
On behalf of State Signatories of the Group of 77 and China, I am
pleased to see you chairing the first part of the 23rd session of Working
Group B. I believe that under your chairmanship and guidance, discussions
will lead to fruitful conclusions and I assure you of our full
cooperation.
The Group wishes to thank the Executive Secretary, Ambassador
Wolfgang Hoffmann, for his comprehensive written and oral reports and we
would like to express our appreciation for the diligent efforts of the
whole PTS in implementing the mandates of the Preparatory Commission for
the establishment of the verification system at the Entry Into Force of
the Treaty.
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 guidance to the PTS for preparing programme and
budget for 2005, the Group takes note with appreciation the efforts of the
PTS in implementation of a realistic approach towards the program and
budget for 2005 and trying to keep the 2005 at the same level of 2004 with
no programmatic increases over the 2003 funding level, or in PTS staffing
levels by sticking to the two assumptions of last year namely no
programatic or staff increase and accommodation of proposed changes by
prioritization and reallocating the resources.
We believe that funding for the Capital Investment Fund (CIF) should
further decrease as a lot of progress has already been made in the IMS
Major Programme, and the majority of stations have been site surveyed,
installed and are being certified and we are at the stage of
organizational transition of the PTS and its departure from station
installation orientation.
The Group takes note of 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 "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. In the light
of this position we believe that option one of level of operation as
reflected in document CTBT/PTS/INF.664 could be a basis for further
consideration subject to reducing the monitoring level by PTS staff to
normal working hours. The Group is of the view that the cost of this
exercise should be absorbed within the existing resources and there should
be no extra budgetary provision to this item. We also believe that Post
Certification Costs should be reduced taking into account already approved
guidelines in the WGB (CTBT/WGB-19/1 para 15) and WGA (CTBT/WGA-22/1 para
15).
According to the approved guidelines in the 19th session of the Prep
Com, there is no verification directly related activities for the IDC
before the EIF of the treaty, so the Group is of the opinion that there is
no urgent need for replacing all IDC hardware in 2004 and it can be done
in a longer term as a progressive process, so that the budget for
acquisition of hardware could decrease.
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 in establishing all those
elements. Due to the complexity of the OSI issues, active participation of
all members is important so we urge all the States Signatories to actively
participate in the OSI discussion. From our point of view 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
consider that enough resources should be allocated to the OSI major
program in order to help the necessary preparations for the establishment
of the OSI regime at Entry Into Force of the Treaty. This should include
testing and evaluation of all OSI equipments, establishing supporting
infrastructures and preparing a comprehensive programme for training of
the inspectors and inspection assistants after the EIF of the treaty.
The Group asks 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.
Mr. Chairman,
2. From the beginning of the initiative of WGB for the review of the
organizational structure of the PTS, Member of the Group raised some
question about the need of such a review since the present structure is
serving the State Signatories well. We are unhappy that the initial
appointment and nomination of the team were not in close consultation with
the State Signatories although we expected that and its clear in the joint
paper. However in the light of very recent development and consultations,
we are ready to work with other State Signatories on this issue subject to
some conditions.
From our point of view the tasks of the PTS include two main pillars
namely political issues and technical issues. In any attempt to
restructuring, the balance between political and technical tasks of the
PTS should be maintained. Therefore we believe that in restructuring the
PTS, unnecessary changes should not be made. The purposes of the
restructuring should be only to increase coordination, to enhance
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 propose some recommendations on restructuring for
consideration by the Prep-Com, then the Group attaches utmost importance
to the its fair geographical representation within the team. The Group is
of the view that the selection of the members of the external team should
be identified by State Signatories rather than by the Chairpersons of the
Working Group A and Working Group B. However, we should reiterate that
this issue is very sensitive and that recommendations can be implemented
only after thorough reviewing by the State Signatories and decisions
should be taken in the Working Groups and the Prep-Com. We believe that
the whole process of restructuring should be fully transparent and in
close consultation with the State Signatories. The members of the team
should elect the chairperson of the Team and all the appointed members
have equal status to be nominated as a chair. With regard to the funding
of the team, it is our view that this exercise should be funded within
available resources.
3. The Group attaches great importance to the National Data Centers
(NDCs). 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.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
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