AS DELIVERED

Mr. Chairman, I take the floor to explain the vote of the United States on L.9, “Prohibition of the Development and Manufacture of New Types of Weapons of Mass destruction and New Systems of Such Weapons: Report of the Conference on Disarmament.”

The United States believes the international community should focus on the very real problem of the proliferation of known weapons of mass destruction, both by states that willfully violate their commitments to treaties and by non-state actors. In the 66 years since the 1948 definition of WMDs was written, no new types of WMD have appeared. The notion of new types of WMDs beyond chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear remains entirely hypothetical.

No useful purpose is served by diverting the attention of the international community away from existing threats, so the United States has voted against L.9.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.