Mr. President,

My delegation, which was very pleased at your election to conduct our work, congratulates you most warmly thereon.

I also wish to convey our appreciation and congratulations to Ms. Olga Pellicer, of Mexico, for her efforts and skilful leadership in the course of the prior meetings. We are also grateful to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, and the Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Louise Frechette, for their efforts.
 

Mr. President,

We have participated in the regional seminar that took place in Lima, Peru, and have cooperated with the International Monitoring System for the installation of an auxiliary seismic station in our territory. The relevant negotiations have reached the final stage. We have provided assistance to the missions the secretariat has sent to our country. Several Guatemalan technicians have received training from the Treaty Organization Secretariat.

We are pleased at the fact that early next month the DirectorGeneral of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, will visit Guatemala. This will be the first visit to Guatemala by a Director-General of the IAEA. It makes us feel more committed in our struggle in favour of nuclear disarmament.

We wish to inform this meeting that during the visit by the Director-General Guatemala will sign an additional protocol for the application of safeguards. By so doing we shall contribute to the consolidation of Latin America as a nuclear-weapon-free zone. This action is one that leaves no doubt about our position on the question of disarmament. We have already submitted the corresponding application to the IAEA Board of Governors. The formalization of this instrument will provide us with access to new forms of international cooperation and make available new technologies that will facilitate better use by us of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, a real must for development.

Our State agenda is embodied in the Peace Agreements concluded in 1996. This applies equally to our foreign policy, whose spirit is imbued with a profound vocation for peace and the search for solutions within the framework of international law. This is why we believe that the international community should make use of all its resources and apply its best judgment in order to consolidate a regime of non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament that will enable us to reach the goal desired, i. e. a world free of nuclear weapons.

Guatemala is convinced that the entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty will be a huge advance in the history of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and is making every effort to contribute to the accomplishment of this objective.

Despite the strenuous endeavours that are being made to that end, we have begun a new millennium without having attained the principal objectives sought, which are not only to hold back the proliferation of nuclear weapons but also to achieve their complete destruction. The danger they embody is of concern to everyone, whether or not we are able to produce them, inasmuch as their destructive capacity knows neither borders nor any other limits.
 

Mr. President,

This is why my delegation urges all the parties concerned to intensify their efforts and, with firm political will, move nuclear disarmament out of its present stagnation and thereby fulfil the commitment by certain States to disarm and by others to renounce the possession of nuclear weapons.

The present time is one of great international turbulence. When we see that the support of some governments enables certain groups to use very powerful nuclear and conventional weapons, we realize the fragility of the system of disarmament and the maintenance of peace. This confirms our view that the dream of a world free of nuclear weapons is still a distant one.

Since my country signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in September 1999, we have been trying to contribute to the fullest extent possible to its early entry into force. And, as we pointed out during the preparatory conference held in October of that year in Vienna, we maintain our commitment to the creation of a better world, one that is free of nuclear weapons.

Thank you.

Sources

• http://www.un.org/webcast/ctbt/statements/guatemalaE.htm