The 2026 session of the Conference on Disarmament opened today in Geneva under the presidency of Mongolia. In his statement, Italy’s Permanent Representative to the CD, Ambassador Leonardo Bencini, highlighted the value of the work carried out by the subsidiary bodies, while acknowledging the widespread sense of frustration among Member States over the Conference’s continued difficulty in fully carrying out its negotiating mandate.
The Ambassador underscored the importance of continuity in the Conference’s work and of substantive dialogue within the subsidiary bodies as a foundation for future negotiations, cautioning against assessing results solely on the basis of the adoption of formal documents. He also stressed the need to reflect on the evolution of the current format of the Conference on Disarmament, in light of the numerous requests for membership and the profound changes that have taken place in the international architecture since the CD was established nearly fifty years ago.
