Canada's statement to the 62nd Session of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO)

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Vienna, Austria, June 24, 2024

Thank you Chair, and thank you for the informal briefing and consultations that were undertaken in advance of this meeting. You can count on the support of Canada to have an efficient and productive session under your leadership.

I will use this opportunity to highlight Canada’s priorities as well as comment on various agenda items under consideration. We will have additional points under specific agenda items.

Chair, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the threat of the possible use of nuclear weapons has been raised by the Russian President.

We condemn Russia’s actions and call on the Russian Federation to completely withdraw its forces from Ukraine and end its illegal invasion and aggression towards the Ukrainian people.

Canada remains deeply concerned about the DPRK’s escalatory nuclear and ballistic missile activities. We echo the condemnation of the UN Secretary General of the DPRK’s latest attempted launch of a so-called military satellite using ballistic missile technology.

We urge the DPRK to refrain from conducting any further nuclear tests and from further nuclear or ballistic missile activities, and to fully comply with its international obligations under all relevant Security Council resolutions. All states must fully implement relevant UNSC sanctions, including by refraining from all forms of military cooperation with the DPRK.

We would like to thank Executive Secretary Floyd for his opening remarks and for the various reports issued in advance of this meeting. As these were considered at WGA, we will not repeat our comments here.

As we consider the relevant reports and recommendations on our agenda, Canada looks forward to the presentations by the Chairs from each group and stands ready to adopt the recommendations as proposed in the reports.

We are pleased to support the recommendation from WGA for the Commission to accept the financial statements for 2023 as audited by the External Auditor with the determination of an unmodified (unqualified) audit opinion.

Given the large number of recommendations that were outlined in the External Auditor’s report, we would ask that the Advisory Group continue its review and that neither WGA nor the PrepCom delve into discussions about these recommendations until the Advisory Group has concluded its review.  

With respect to the Budget Update for 2025, my delegation very much appreciates the timely issuance of the update and the efforts made by the PTS to find efficiencies.

Keeping on financial and budgetary decisions, Canada supports the proposals on the carry-forward and multi-year funds as recommended by the AG and WGA.  

We also wish to reiterate Canada’s appreciation for the efforts of the ES and the PTS in working towards gender parity in the PTS and for working to ensure diversity across gender and geography considerations.

In particular, the full and meaningful participation of women in all aspects of the work of this organization is extremely important and will reap benefits for the organization as well as State Signatories.

Canada is fully supportive of efforts to recruit and retain staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible. We support further efforts to increase participation from under-represented regions and commend efforts to this end and were pleased to hear about progress in this area from the executive Secretary’s remarks this morning.

Finally, I would like to reaffirm the resolve of the delegation of Canada to work with you Chair, the PTS and other State Signatories to ensure the continued effectiveness of the CTBTO in this forum and others.  Thank you.