10th Meeting, 9th Session of the Working Group on the Strengthening of the BWC

I hope everybody had a good lunch and come back to the meeting very inspired. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, welcome to the tenth and final meeting of the ninth session of the Working Group on the Strengthening of the Convention. As with our previous meetings this week, this meeting is taking place in an in-person format in accordance with the regular practice under the Convention. It is also a public meeting which is being webcast live on UN Web TV. We have three hours of this session of the working group left. As I mentioned this morning, we will need to dedicate some time to the adoption of the procedure report of this session by reviewing the draft which was provided to you all yesterday afternoon. Before we return again to the small groups to continue the good work of this morning, I would like to give the floor to Ambassador Leonardo Bentini, Permanent Representative of Italy to the CD. As you all know, Ambassador Bentini presided over the ninth review conference, which gave birth to this working group. But he's now leaving Geneva for Rome, not bad, and will not be here in December to witness our fine session. We can invite him. We have benefited significantly from Ambassador Bentini's wise counsel, so we are now very sad to bid him farewell. Before I give you the floor, let me tell you a story about him. In Geneva, we are 13 ambassadors for disarmament and nine missions for disarmament. And so we are treated like second class ambassadors here because ambassadors for the WTO, for the UN, they have a special treatment that was not extended to us. So disarmament was considered economy class and the others first class. So thanks to my friend Leonardo, now we were upgraded. And we have the same level of treatment as the ambassadors at the UN and to WTO. So we all UN ambassadors, we are very thankful to him for that, among other things, of course. And so Leonardo, you have the floor.

Thank you, Fred, for your nice words. I very much appreciate it. and for giving me the opportunity to say goodbye to everyone here. I have to say there has been over the past few years a high turnover of people. I don't see many faces who were there in 2022. Well, some are still here, but I would like to briefly mention that review conference because it was indeed a collective achievement. that we had at the end of 2022 against all odds, against a background which was certainly not very favourable. And I have to say that, unfortunately, to this day, that remains the only conference of this kind, including review conferences of other conventions, that ended with consensus. So, We did establish the working group. In fact, the main goal that we achieved at the time was to break a 21-year-old deadlock. We decided to strengthen the institutionalization of the convention and to put on the agenda again the issue of verification. And in order to do that, we created this working group. I have to say over the past few years, and very much thanks to you and to all the other colleagues who were involved in this, there have been huge progress. There has been huge progress. And I have to say that now we're beginning to see the shape of a possible agreement mainly on the mechanisms, these mechanisms are very important because it's the first step towards creating a more solid institutional framework for our Convention, which it doesn't have at the moment. So I'm very much encouraged by what I've seen. We've been discussing this for now almost four years. We had been discussing that also before the previous review conference. and we were quite almost close to establishing them in, in, uh, 2022, but of course we were, eventually we were not ready to do so. So I do hope that, uh, an agreement can be reached in December. Um, and I'm very hopeful that it will, um, but I would like to also, uh, sound a note of caution and warning. We have to be very careful. It's a very, um, delicate moment. Again, I remain optimistic, but if we don't find an agreement, the whole process risks imploding. And what I mean by imploding, I mean that all the work that we've conducted over the past few years and even before might have been in vain, and we will go back to square one, which is not 2022, but it's 2021. because we're not going to repeat what we've done here. So there's a lot at stake. I'm saying this, I don't want to be negative, I just want everyone to be aware. And perhaps this will create further incentives to become more flexible, to try and find, I do appreciate the pressure that you put on delegations that we do have to start identifying landing zones, We still have some months. I understand that the next few months are going to be crucial for the search for these landing zones. And then in December, there will only be one week, which is not a lot. But it is very important that there is an agreement. for the reasons that I mentioned. And you said that unfortunately I won't be there unless, you know, there is another reason to come, but even if I won't be there, I will follow it from a distance because, of course, as you know, this is something that I'm very attached to. I have very fond memories of that review conference, and I will always follow it. even if I'm busy with doing something else. So thank you very much, Chair, and all the best to you and to all the other colleagues. Thank you.

Thank you. And I hope that you can come in December so you can see the child being born. Thank you. As I announced at the end of this morning's meeting, we will now return again to informal consultations to see if further progress can be made before I close the session at 6:00. I urge you all once again to show flexibility. in the informal discussions and to come back to this plenary ready to show some flexibility. We should return to this room by 4:30 in order to hear back from the facilitators and to see whether any additional text can be agreed. We also need to allow sufficient time for the adoption of the procedure report. Therefore, I suspend the meeting now and I ask you to come back at 4:30. And once again, I would urge you, we are going to the small groups to find consensus and agreement on some text. So don't waste the time of the facilitators because What comes up here is basically what this group agreed. So no need to add words, paragraphs and chapters and appendix and so on and so on. Try to be as flexible as possible that we can agree with the work of the facilitators. The meeting is suspended.

Because I wanted to ask, that's the thing I was going to try and ask.

Okay, welcome back. Before we continue the meeting, if we look if the glass is full empty or half empty or half full, I have to tell you that we have 93.1% in green and 97% in green, yellow and brackets of the whole text. So we are getting there, but as somebody mentioned, it's like climbing the Himalaya, you know, the problem is the last steps. So let's go. I would like to give the floor to the facilitators to give me an update. So we will listen to India, Peru and Pakistan. India, you have the floor.

Mr. Chairperson, good evening everyone. Mr. Chair, we do not have a particular update as of yet, but of course we had worked on the language in Annex 2, which we had proposed to you. That language is based on a provisional understanding between the delegations in the small room. And in the small room we had US, France, Australia, Italy, Germany on one side, and all of them, Cuba, Iran, Belarus, China, together, all of them were very constructive. and I would request if the secretariat might want to place that on the screen. This proposal that we have in annex 2 is based on a delicate compromise and both sides have made compromises on their part. These are reciprocal. I urge delegations to have a look at the text and I would say that this text does not resolve all issues, but we are closer to better, in a better position than when we started. And with this I'll stop and I hope delegations can suggest their comments and also any red line edits that they may have on the text that we proposed. Thank you.

Thank you. Any comments from the floor? Paragraph two. I'd just like to call your attention that we close at six and we are almost at five and we have some other work to do. So I don't want a big debate in any of the issues we have, India, Peru, Pakistan and South Africa. So just brief comments. Thank you very much.

In the informal meeting, certain things were stated. As regarded B, the I believe that we need to be in compliance with what we said previously. We need to say to address obstacles rather than challenges for consistency. Thank you very much.

Despacito, it's nice.

Cooperation and assistance. Comments? B, Cuba.

Thank you very much, Chair. As I said, instead of challenges, we propose obstacles, or we can keep both, obstacles and challenges.

Any comments on the Cuban, on B and on the Cuban proposal? I see none. Let's move to C. Share on a voluntary basis its experiences lessons learned, and best practice. Any comments? Can I green paragraph two? Oh, there you are, sorry.

Thank you, Chair. At this time, we're not ready to green paragraph two.

Anything.

I would say that in general because we have portions of the text under it that relate to some of the subparagraphs that remain in brackets that we're going to need to consider everything in its totality.

Thank you for your cooperation. Three, the ICA Advisory Group. should provide a factual report on strengthening the international cooperation and assistance under Article 10. Any comments on that? US.

Thank you, Chair. There have been some modifications you know, to this text since we last looked at it, specifically the word should previously was may, and I think we have some concerns with, you know, that being strengthened and the potential implications of reporting. Thank you.

Can we accept the American suggestion of may instead of should? Iran.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for giving me the floor. Unfortunately, we cannot agree with the U.S. proposal. We would like to propose the word "veil." Thank you.

Germany.

Thank you. We would support the American proposal with May. Thank you.

France.

May I see Mr. Thank you, Chair. Indeed, May was discussed today and we were not able to find an agreement on a proposal between May should or will. So I think we should keep these options open for the time being. Thank you.

See, just one question. None of you were in the small group downstairs. So we just came with the suggestion now. You couldn't have a suggestion in the group. So we don't waste our time. So.

Peru.

Thank you.

Peru's team has continued to carry out consultations throughout the day. And as I said in the morning, we have put forward a proposal of compromise text. that I sent to the Secretariat, so I would kindly ask colleagues to put the text on the screen. And to my understanding at this point, it is likely that this text could be the best attempt for a compromise. Thank you.

Could delegations review paragraph 13, which is in white? Can we green the text? Australia.

Thank you, Chair. While we've appreciated the work of all the small groups and it's been a really useful exercise, we as a small delegation haven't been able to be in all rooms at once. So this is the first time we are considering this text and we appreciate all the efforts by the facilitator, but we will need time to consider its implications before we can agree it. Thank you.

You know that we finish the meeting at 6.00. I really better not say. Pakistan.

Thank you, Chair. Chair, while the secretariat projects the work that we were doing on the screen, we would just like to briefly thank all the delegations who engaged in a very constructive spirit in the small group setting, and we had a number of suggestions, and in our view, progress was made at least in that small group setting, and we are in a position to bring the product of those small group discussions before the bigger room. So there are four paragraphs that we would like to bring before you, but two of them together. First paragraph 21 and 22. Chair, it was our understanding in that small group setting among the participants that were able to participate in that discussions that convergence has been reached on these two paragraphs. and if it's felt in this bigger room as well through you we can invite delegations to consider turning this text of both paragraphs 21 and 22 in green without the language in brackets the two words by consensus since it's a different issue being dealt elsewhere. So first, we would like to pose through you this question on these two paragraphs, if you can turn it into green. And then I will explain the other two paragraphs. Thank you.

Thank you. Pakistan once more. Can we turn 21 and 22 in green? So decided. Pakistan, can you show the other paragraphs that you?

-- Thank you, Chair. So, Chair, on these two paragraphs, the paragraph two, operative paragraph two, and paragraph four, we had, again, very productive discussions and some progress was made on these two issues. However, I feel, and it's the feeling of our delegation, that at this moment perhaps some delegation would need additional time to consult their capitals. So what we would suggest through you is if the text that is currently on the screen on these two paragraphs can be included in the way it appears in the outcome document. in the final circulation that will be done after the meeting today so that delegations would continue working on the basis of this text. Our understanding is that we are very close and we should not lose the progress that we have made on these two paragraphs going forward. So at this moment, we only request that these two paragraphs, the way they appear, be included in the main document prior to their circulation. as they appear right now. Thank you.

Thank you. I would like the Secretariat, I think on the second line, by consensus should be between brackets, no? Russia.

Thank you very much, distinguished chair. We would like to ask.

Okay.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. We would like to ask you to please paragraph two in the renewed version of the draft final report and put it in square brackets. So we would like to see square brackets around the entire paragraph two and not just the last sentence because for us both sentences are interlinked and it is absolutely Right, it is linked to the application of the principle of consensus. Thank you.

Any other comment? Germany.

Thank you, Chair. Just in line with the logic, we keep having another paragraphs. We would also like to propose to put by consensus in square brackets.

Thank you. Russia.

Thank you very much, distinguished Chair. In light of the comment that was made by the delegation of Germany, we would prefer then, at this stage, to keep paragraph 2 in the form that you proposed in the initial version of the report. We do hope that for our historical memory the delegation of Pakistan will keep that language something that could be used in the future but in the renewed version of the draft final report we would prefer to keep the initial text that you proposed with all the square brackets thank you.

Thank you well if we put the whole paragraph on brackets it's in brackets Pakistan.

Thank you, Chair. Chair, we've listened to the comments very carefully. So given the comments that we have heard from the floor, we would propose that if only paragraph four, the way it appears could be included in the text that would be circulated. On paragraph two, we have, of course, we've listened and we will keep the record and If, Chair, we are asked to facilitate consultations in the future on this, we will, of course, take into account the work that the delegations have been doing on this issue. So on paragraph two, we can keep the text as it appears in your main paper. And on paragraph four, our request is if we can consider including this text in the main paper that will be circulated without turning it into green at this stage. Thank you.

Thank you, Pakistan. Spain.

Thank you very much, Chair. I would like to thank the distinguished delegation of Pakistan for the work carried out in order to find compromise language as other delegations and unfortunately I was not able to participate in the work on paragraph four appendix one I was involved in other meetings and the language that we find in this proposal referring to gender is problematic for my delegation as I earlier said to the delegation of Pakistan. Now as I said that on all questions of gender to keep gender balance was already a concession and we would not wish to dilute this any further and since we still have brackets here we will continue to work to find the right language thank you.

Thank you again as I have mentioned in other meetings my position is that there is something called UN agreed language we don't have to invent the wheel so I agree with you Spain I think took many years for delegations and all delegations that are in this room to come with the expression gender balance I think it's not time to start opening un language because if we start doing this we all are going to lose so I agree with uh Spain any other comment?

Thank you, President. Thank you, Chair. Simply to express my support to the comments expressed by Spain and yourself. For us, it is important to reflect diversity on one hand and would not agree to not having a geographical representation because in one way or another countries or regions that are not really represented may end up running the risk and not being part of this group and then this will create asymmetries and imbalances. that we need to reflect the vulnerabilities in different regions. The vulnerabilities we see in Latin America are not the same that we see in Africa or in Europe. So for us, it is important to include this geographic dimension. And as you said, gender balance is language that has been agreed more than three decades ago. So this is the minimum that can be accepted, something that was already accepted during the previous review conference. But for my delegation, it would be unacceptable to delete what is in square brackets. We have to be flexible, but we cannot leave these references outside of the text. Thank you.

Peter, Uganda.

Thank you, Chair. And I also want to add on to my colleagues from Spain and Panama. Unfortunately, Uganda enjoys very rich outbreaks. I would be shocked if people would have meetings and would talk about things that affect us and we lacked this representation. And also, I think for me, undoing agreed language sets a very bad precedent. And unfortunately, for some of us, it creates even greater complexity because if you're going to start undoing a great language then what's the point of agreeing on language in the first place thank you chair.

Thank you Peter totally agree with you Cuba and Togo.

Thank you chair the comments made by delegation of Panama are extremely relevant we have to have equitable geographic balance and also a gender balance. As a term that has been accepted by the United Nations, we understand that there are some concerns by delegations, but I think in this case it is quite easy to use the language that has already agreed to.

I have Togo and Pakistan.

Thank you very much, Chair. just like Uganda, Panama and Cuba, this language in square brackets does not seem to strike the right balance in terms of geography or gender. So if I'm wondering whether we can come back to previous language that seemed to us more balanced?

Pakistan.

Thank you, Chair. Chair, being cognizant of the time remaining, we would just like to clarify that perhaps it's not the best use of time to continue deliberations on this paragraph because we are not proposing turning it into green. We do recognize that more work is required on this language as we move forward and we will be consulting all delegations widely. So we can move forward on this issue without settling the debate on this Thank you.

Thank you, Pakistan. Totally agree with you. South Africa, if you have any small comment, and then I think that you are also a facilitator.

Thank you, Chair, for giving me the floor. I did have a comment, but I would reserve based on what our colleague from Pakistan has just indicated. in terms of the task that you've given to the delegation of Canada and South Africa, I'd like to firstly express appreciation to you for allowing us to conduct informal consultations on the ICA fund and steering group. Unfortunately, we were not able to find a consensus on these paragraphs and we would continue or we would like the opportunity to continue consultations during the intercessional period. So thank you so much, Chair, and we look forward to engaging further on these issues.

Thank you, South Africa, for your work, and I think Canada was also working with you, and I wish you good luck. They also censor me again. No, it's black. Australia just sent us a message, so you wouldn't have any problem to accept this paragraph. So can we green paragraph 13? And I remind you that as most of you know, I'm the most superstitious person that you can ever meet. And so I think that's a good thing to green paragraph 13. So decided. Thank you. I would like once again to thank all those who have worked to find agreements and mediate compromises on difficult issues during the course of this week. The Secretariat is now working to produce an updated version of the draft report that will reflect our discussions and agreements today. This will be circulated soon as document BWC/WG/9/CRP.1/HEV.7. This will reflect the current status of our discussions. You'll be able to leave this meeting with Rev.7 as a record of the progress made this week. I will suspend the meeting while the revised version is being finalized. The meeting is suspended.

What we can do is just do this very quickly because I think we can have it, we can do the draft before, sorry.

I would now like to turn to the issue -- oh, before I turn to the issue, for your information, we have 93.5% in green and yellow, and we have green, yellow, and brackets, 98.2. So we are almost reaching the Himalaya. As you will recall, the first session of the working group decided that reports of a procedure nature could be prepared for its sessions as appropriate. on the basis of consensus, paragraph 13 of document BWC/WG/1/2. A draft of the procedural report has been prepared by the secretariat as document BWC/WG/9/CRP.2. which was circulated in hard copy and by e-mail yesterday afternoon. The draft procedural report is based very closely on the reports adopted by consensus by previous sessions of this Working Group. It should therefore be very familiar to you all and also hopefully very easy to agree by consensus. So, I would like to proceed with the finalization of the procedure report as contained in document BWC/WG/9/CRP.2. I would kindly request the Secretariat to display the draft report on the screen. I will proceed on a paragraph by paragraph basis and then turn to adopt the procedural report as a whole at the end. Therefore, I will turn now to paragraph 1. As you can see in the third line, The placeholder has been replaced with the actual number of meetings that we held during this session. Can I take it that paragraph one is acceptable? Agreed. Now paragraph two on the composition of the Secretariat. Is paragraph two acceptable? Agreed. On paragraph three, since the draft report was circulated yesterday, the Secretariat has received another note verbal, so the total number in the first line has been updated and the delegation has been added. Is paragraph three acceptable? Agreed. In paragraph four, We list the two signatory States which have participated this session of the Working Group in accordance with Rule 44.1 of the Rules of Procedure. Is paragraph four acceptable? Agreed. Moving on to paragraph five, we record the decision taken at the beginning of this session to grant observer status to one state neither party nor signatory of the convention in accordance with rule 44.2 of the rules of procedure is paragraph five acceptable agreed on paragraph six We record the attendance of the United Nations entities at this meeting in accordance with Rule 44.3 of the Rules of Procedure. Is this paragraph acceptable? Agreed. In paragraph 7, we record the decision taken at the beginning of this session to grant observer status to four listed specialized agencies and regional intergovernmental organizations in accordance with rule 44 of the rules of procedure. Is paragraph seven acceptable? Agreed. In paragraph eight, we record the attendance of 33 non-governmental organizations at this session in accordance with rule 44.5. of the rules of procedure. Is paragraph 8 acceptable? Agreed. Paragraph 9 is a simple reference to the list of participants which will be issued as document BWC/WG/9/INF/1. Is paragraph 9 acceptable? Agreed. Now we move to section three, which summarizes in a simple factual manner our discussions at this session of the working group. Paragraph ten is a simple reference to the mandate of the working group and the indicative schedule agreed to our first organizational meeting in March 23. Is paragraph ten acceptable? Agreed. In paragraph 11, I have included a brief factual reference to the revised draft final report that I introduced as Rev 1 on Monday. I have also included reference to all the subsequent iterations of the draft final report on which we have worked all week as Revs 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Finally, I have included a reference to a revised version which will be issued shortly as BWC/WG/9/CRP.1/HEF7, in which incorporates all the updates, revisions, proposals, even those made today. so that you can leave with a record of the progress that we have made during the week. Is paragraph 11 acceptable? Agreed. Thank you. Now we move on section four and paragraph 12, which refers to the official documentation of the meeting. All the official documents submitted to this session are listed in annex to this report, which we will also consider momentarily. Is paragraph 12 acceptable? Agreed. Thank you. Paragraph 13 relates to the adoption of this report. which we'll do shortly as a whole now that we have considered each paragraph. I have updated the date in the first line and added the phrase as orally amended at the end of the second line in light of the updates since the original draft was produced yesterday. We will adopt the report as a whole shortly, but is paragraph 13, as shown on the screen, acceptable? Russia.

Thank you, distinguished Chair. For us, we have no problem with paragraph 13 as it is. Thank you, distinguished Chair. On the whole, we have no problems with paragraph 13, however, before we do agree to adopt this ad referendum. We would propose discussing the annex or appendix to the current draft report because it is an integral part of the report and until the adoption of it as a whole, it would make sense to consider the annex or appendix. Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, okay. Yeah, we're adopting just the thing. As I mentioned, the report has one annex listing the official documentary documentation submitted. The Secretariat has confirmed that all the documents listed are available on the web page of the meeting. With the exception of the first document, which will be the final version of this report. Once it has been agreed and once it has been issued in all official languages. In addition, the final version of the list of participants recorded in this annex as document BWC/WG/9/000000000000000 INF.1 is being finalized and will be added to the webpage of the meeting very soon. Is the annex acceptable?

Agreed.

Russia.

Thank you, distinguished Chair. Could we scroll through this appendix on the screen so that we can see the additions that have already been made? Thank you.

Is it okay? Okay. Thank you. So we have concluded our paragraph by paragraph review of the procedural report of this ninth session. Can I therefore take it that the procedural report as a whole can be adopted? So decided. Thank you. With your indulgence, I would like to make some brief closing remarks, but first, are there any state parties wishing to take the floor? Iran.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We express our appreciation to you, your team, and the ISU for advancing the mandate of the working group. We also congratulate you on greening 95% of the draft report. We wish to take this opportunity to draw the attention of the distinguished delegations to working paper BWC/WG/9/WP.1 submitted by the Islamic Republic of Iran entitled Prohibition of Attacks on Peaceful Medical Biological Facilities, a Violation of Fundamental Principles of International Law.

Thank you. In closing, I would like to thank you all for your active participation in this 9th session of the Working Group on Strengthening the Convention. I would like to express my thanks to the Implementation Support Unit for its support to me as a Chairperson of this Working Group. Finally, my thanks also to the interpreters and conference room staff for facilitating our discussions. Thank you. The meeting is closed.