UN top diplomat urges on Disarmament for success in tackling threats to peace

In Geneva, the UN's top diplomat there has urged Governments at the Conference on Disarmament to be more successful in tackling global threats to peace.

Tatiana Valovaya, who's the first woman Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, as well as the first female UN Director-General in the Swiss city, warned that escalating tensions around the world were "severely jeopardizing" the gains made in the last 40 years at the Conference by the Member States. New scientific, technological developments and dynamics were challenging international security, Ms. Valovaya insisted, while also calling for the Conference to "overcome their differences" in search of results.

"For us to move forward and get things done to deliver on the important mandate bestowed on this body, we must ensure that the Conference does what it was intended to do", she said, "to negotiate and agree new instruments governing complex, sensitive and urgent issues of national and international security, issues that impact on every living being on this planet."

Ms. Valovaya's comments follow the recent ending of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States and Russia. In a statement at the beginning of the month, UN Secretary-General António Guterres underlined the need to avoid what he called "destabilizing developments" and to urgently seek agreement on a new common path for international arms control.