Ms. Bassim (Egypt) (spoke in Arabic): Madam President, at the outset, I should like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation for your efforts during your presidency of the Conference on Disarmament. We assure you that we are fully ready to provide any assistance to advance the work of the Conference as the sole multilateral forum for negotiations on disarmament. We also welcome this opportunity to discuss the most important subject on the Conference’s agenda — nuclear disarmament — as consultations continue on the formulation of a comprehensive and balanced programme of work that would allow negotiations to begin on legally binding instruments concerning disarmament, notably nuclear disarmament.