The Conference on Disarmament held its first formal Plenary meeting conducted online in a virtual format under the Bulgarian Presidency. Bulgaria assumed the presidency on 15 March and will be chairing the Conference until 21 May 2021. In the course of the first two weeks of its tenure the Bulgarian Presidency focused on consultations with member States’ delegations with a view to approving the work program of the Conference.

At the plenary meeting H.E. Ambassador Yuri Sterk, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Bulgaria to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva and current President of the Conference on Disarmament presented the state of play regarding the adoption of the Programme of Work for 2021 and informed about the intention of the Presidency to dedicate the remainder of the Conference’s work time to thematic debates on its main agenda items.

The meeting also heard a statement by The Right Honorable James Cleverly MP Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who presented to the membership of the Conference on Disarmament the outcome of UK’s Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Foreign and Development Policy, that had been published last week.

The Conference on Disarmament is recognized by the Tenth Special Session on Disarmament of the United Nations General Assembly (SSOD-I) (1978) as the single multilateral negotiating forum in the area of disarmament.