Mr. Chairman,
We fully endorse the statement by Indonesia on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement.
The tendency to increase global military expenditure while hunger and poverty exponentially increase in the world is regrettable.
Last year, global military expenditure amounted to 1.7 billion dollars, while 3,460 million human beings survive in poverty, 821 million people suffer from chronic hunger, 758 million, are illiterate and 844 million, lack basic drinking water services.
The main manufacturers continued to exponentially develop increasingly strategic, sophisticated and deadly conventional weapons, deepening the marked imbalance in the production, possession and trade in these weapons and undermining international stability, peace and security.
Certain manufacturers of these weapons continue to transfer them to unauthorized non-state actors; while trying to hinder developing countries, including through international regulations, the acquisition and use of certain conventional weapons such as small arms and light weapons, for self-defense purposes.
Cuba rejects this double standard in the area of disarmament and strongly defends the legitimate right of States to manufacture, import and stockpile conventional weapons to meet their security and self-defense needs, pursuant to Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.
We cannot support agreements for the control of weapons, military equipment and dual-use technology, negotiated among groups of States of limited composition, which impose selective and discriminatory restrictions on the access of developing countries to materials, equipment and technology for peaceful purposes.
Mr. Chairman,
Cuba has serious concerns regarding the Arms Trade Treaty. This confers privileges to the States that export conventional weapons, to the detriment of the legitimate defense and security interests of the rest of the States.
The Treaty also sets out subjective parameters, easily manipulated, for the approval and denial of transfers of weapons to member states and, unjustifiably, did not prohibit transfers to unauthorized non-state actors, which is the main source of illicit trafficking in arms.
Cuba reiterates that to eradicate illicit trafficking, it is necessary to address the deep socioeconomic causes generating it and provide international cooperation and assistance to the States that request it, according to their needs.
The United Nations Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, approved by the United Nations General Assembly, is the main international reference for dealing with the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. Cuba will continue to support the Program of Action and to comply with its provisions, as well as with the Final Documents of its Review Conferences.
Mr. Chairman,
We reaffirm that Cuba accords high priority to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, to which our country is a State Party, and strictly abides by its provisions and by its Annexed Protocols.
In addition, Cuba favors the adoption, as soon as possible, of a Protocol prohibiting lethal autonomous weapons, even before they are manufactured on a large scale. Likewise, regulations are required for the use of weapons with certain autonomous capabilities, in particular military drones, which are causing a high number of civilian casualties. These kinds of weapons are totally incompatible with international humanitarian law.
We hope that the First Committee of the UNGA will give the necessary impetus to the negotiations in Geneva of the Open-ended Group of Governmental Experts on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems.
Thank you very much