From January 19 to February 13, 2026, Mongolia chaired the Conference on Disarmament (CD). This was reported by MiddleAsianNews.
During this time, the Permanent Mission of Mongolia to the United Nations in Geneva and various international organizations actively promoted mutual understanding and consensus-seeking among the participating countries of the CD.
On January 20, at the opening of the conference in Geneva, Mongolia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Gerelmaa Davaasuren, thanked the member states for their trust and confirmed that the chairmanship would be conducted openly, fairly, and constructively. She emphasized the importance of the year 2026 for international disarmament negotiations, highlighting the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the need to intensify discussions on new weapon systems.
A unique feature of this chairmanship is the opportunity granted to each member state of the Conference once every ten years. This year, as the first chair, Mongolia facilitated the adoption of the agenda and the draft work program of the Conference, as well as the consideration of requests from observer states.
During its chairmanship, Mongolia approved the agenda of the Conference for the entire year and endorsed the participation of 16 states as observers. Mongolia also organized an official plenary session dedicated to current issues of international peace and security. The speech by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno once again underscored the significance of the conference.
Mongolia took consistent steps to promote the adoption of a work program draft that had remained unapproved for 30 years due to disagreements among member states. In this context, more than 20 bilateral meetings took place, as well as ten rounds of informal multilateral consultations and eight official and unofficial plenary sessions. Although consensus on the draft decision regarding the Conference's work for 2026 was not achieved, representatives of the participating countries expressed gratitude to Mongolia for its active and responsible leadership during this challenging geopolitical period.
In accordance with its peaceful and multifaceted foreign policy, Mongolia constructively and responsibly fulfilled its duties as the chair of the Conference on Disarmament. This underscores its contribution to addressing pressing regional and global issues, particularly in the field of non-proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
Participants of the first meeting expressed their best wishes to Mongolia, noting that under the current geopolitical situation, the role of the Conference on Disarmament is becoming increasingly significant. They emphasized the need to renew political will to break the prolonged deadlock in the Conference's work.
The Conference on Disarmament is the only multilateral forum in the world for discussing disarmament issues. The chairmanship of the Conference rotates among member states, with each chair serving for four working weeks. After Mongolia's chairmanship (from January 19 to February 1) in 2026, the next countries to take this post will be: Morocco (from February 16 to March 13), the Netherlands (from March 16 to 27 and from May 11 to 22), Nigeria (from May 25 to June 19), Norway (from June 22 to 26 and from July 27 to August 14), and Pakistan (from August 17 to September 11).
