Thank you,
Compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty's provision requiring the destruction of stockpiled antipersonnel mines has generally been excellent though not without its challenges. This is shown by the statistics: a total of 94 States Parties have officially declared completing destruction of their stockpiles, collectively destroying more than 55 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines.
Behind those numbers is the fact that every antipersonnel mine destroyed from stocks or through mine clearance is a life or limb saved. The preventive obligation of stockpile destruction has potentially saved millions of lives. The humanitarian imperative to demonstrate progress towards the goal of a mine-free world helped spur this impressive result.
But this work is not over for two States Parties.
At the Siem Reap-Angkor Review Conference and here today, Ukraine has explained that the ongoing conflict caused by Russia's full-scale invasion means there is no possibility to audit and verify the status of its remaining stocks of more than 3.3 million antipersonnel mines. We understand the situation is complex and encourage States Parties to make every effort to support Ukraine to secure and destroy the stocks. We appreciate Ukraine's unwavering commitment to completing this obligation as soon as its security situation allows.
We are alarmed at civilian harm caused by Russia's use of PFM antipersonnel mines dropped from quadcopter drones. It's not possible to tell if the PFM mines originated from Russia stocks or if they were captured and taken from the Ukrainian stockpile. What matters more is condemning this use of PFM antipersonnel mines as completely unacceptable.
Greece also failed to meet the treaty's Article 4 deadline for stockpile destruction and possesses nearly 335,000 antipersonnel mines. The ICBL recognizes its efforts to surmount difficult technical, financial, and legal hurdles.
We appreciate the latest Article 7 transparency report from Greece, which shows that more than 100,000 antipersonnel mines have now been transferred to Croatia for destruction. We understand from the statement made today that 35,000 mines have been destroyed since the Review Conference, which is good news. We urge Greece to report not just the number of mines transferred for destruction but the number that have been destroyed in Croatia.
We encourage Greece to focus on completing the task of its stockpile destruction, as a matter of urgency.
We also encourage Tuvalu to submit its transparency report for the Mine Ban Treaty and official confirm that it possesses no stocks of antipersonnel mines.
According to Landmine Monitor, 63 States Parties are retaining antipersonnel landmines for research and training purposes. Finland tops the list with more than 15,000 mines and this is even more disturbing given its withdrawal from the Mine Ban Treaty. We urge Finland to destroy these mines and not use them.
Bangladesh comes second on the retention list, with 12,050 antipersonnel mines and we note that number has remained static for the past decade. Since Bangladesh is not consuming the mines via research and training then we recommend it to destroy these stocks without delay.
Sri Lanka retains 7,339 antipersonnel mines for training and we understand it consumed more than 2,000 mines in 2023. We are keen for Sri Lanka to submit its updated transparency report covering 2024.
Another 22 States Parties are retaining between 1,000 mines and 6,000 mines each, while 38 States Parties each retain fewer than 1,000 mines. We encourage all of these States Parties to reassess why they are still retaining live antipersonnel mines.
We appreciate today's statements from Germany and Venezuela. We encourage more States Parties would use these meetings to speak to their retention of antipersonnel mines and to do so in their transparency reports, as our President urges.
To ensure continued and strengthened transparency and accountability, we urge them to follow their commitments in the Siem Reap-Angkor Action Plan by annually reviewing the number of antipersonnel mines retained for permitted purposes under Article 3 to ensure that they do not exceed the minimum number absolutely necessary. Better yet, destroy the retained stocks.
Thank you.
