Second Committee, 1st plenary meeting - General Assembly, 81st session
General Assembly
Date: 1 October 2026
Language: English
Transcript: https://transcripts.un.org/en/ga/c2/81/1
Transcripts available through this tool are created by using automatic speech recognition and are not official records nor official documents of the United Nations. Official records and official documents are available on the Official Document System of the United Nations.

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2nd Committee · Chair [0:03]:

The first meeting of the Second Committee at the 81st session of the General Assembly is called to order. Distinguished delegates, I wish to extend a warm welcome to all of you. As we begin this session, allow me to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the support and confidence you have bestowed upon me by electing me as chair of the Second Committee. At the outset, I would like to pay tribute to the Chair of the Committee at the 80th session, His Excellency Lamin Diba, Permanent Representative of the Gambia to the United Nations, for the skillful and effective manner in which the work of the Committee was concluded last session. I also wish to extend appreciation to the other members of the former Bureau, Ms. Veronica Garbas of Poland, Mr. Andres Napuri Pita of Peru, Ms. Jenni Mikkola of Finland, and Mr. Javad Momeni of the Islamic Republic of Iran for their much valued contribution and dedication throughout the session. Delegates will recall that at the 23rd meeting of its 80th session on 2nd of June of this year, the Committee elected myself as Chair and the other members of its Bureau for the 81st session. I wish to extend my warmest congratulations to the Vice-Chairs, Mr. Robert Van Buren of Canada, Mr. Hussein Hassan Mohamed Hussein of Maldives, and Mr. Walter Jose Mira Ramirez of El Salvador, and to the rapporteur, Mr. Ivo Miguel Rubio of Angola. I am confident that I can continue to rely on their full support and cooperation in ensuring a productive and successful session. In turn, we in the Bureau will count on the cooperation and commitment of all the members of the Committee, as well as the support of the Secretariat. I very much look forward to working closely with all of you to ensure a productive session. I now turn to the agenda items allocated to the Second Committee for consideration during the 81st session. As you are aware, the first report of the General Committee, contained in document A/81/250 was considered by the General Assembly on 11 September, at which time the Assembly adopted its agenda and allocated the items to the plenary and the main committees. The list of 14 items have been allocated to the Second Committee, which has been also issued in document A/C.2/81/1. I am pleased to inform delegations that, as members were informed through the circulated minutes of Bureau meetings, the Bureau members have agreed on the division of responsibilities for the agenda items allocated to the Committee. Distinguished delegates, I would like now to make some general comments and remarks about the conduct of our work. First, it is my intention to start all meetings on time, that is 10:00 a.m. 00 p.m. sharp, the afternoon session. Similarly, I will adjourn the meetings at 1:00 p.m. 00 p.m. respectively. If there are few or no speakers inscribed for the particular meeting, I will shorten the duration of that meeting or cancel it altogether so that interpretation services can be allocated elsewhere where needed. I would like to recall that the Assembly has decided to continue its practice of waiving the requirement that at least one quarter of its members be present in order to declare a Main Committee meeting open and permit the debate to proceed. Inscription on the list of speakers for the general debate and for the general discussions of the individual agenda items on our program of work have been opened on 16 September through the e-speakers module and the e-delegates portal. Delegations that have not yet inscribed are reminded that requests for inscription should be submitted as soon as possible. The link to the respective live list of speakers will be circulated on e-delegate no later than on the business day before the meeting. In accordance with established practice, Member States may switch places on the speaker list by mutual agreement. Regarding timekeeping and bearing in mind the need to limit the number of plenary meetings at the 81st session due to liquidity constraints, the following time limits will be exceptionally applied without setting a precedent for future sessions. During the general debate, seven minutes for delegations speaking on behalf of a group of states and five minutes for individual member states. During the general discussions and joint discussions of agenda items, five minutes for delegations speaking on behalf of a group of States, and three minutes for individual Member States. For intergovernmental organizations and UN system entities, the time limit for statements in the general debate will be four minutes, and for statements in the general discussion of items, it will be three minutes. The list of speakers for a given meeting will be prepared on the basis of these time limits, and I intend to strictly implement them, including as necessary through automatic microphone cut-off. On a related point, introductions of secretariat reports should be limited to four minutes, although some flexibility may be exercised when two or more reports are introduced in one intervention. I now turn to the matter of statements and explanations of votes, rights of reply, and points of order. In accordance with previous decisions of the General Assembly and the practice of this committee, delegations should exercise their right of reply at the end of the day whenever two meetings have been scheduled for that day and whenever such meetings are devoted to the consideration of the same item, or at the conclusion of the consideration of the item, if that is sooner. The number of interventions in exercise of the right to reply for any delegation at a given meeting should be limited to two per item, with the first intervention limited to three minutes and the second in any way to two minutes. Statements in explanation of vote or position should be limited to three minutes. Points of order should be limited to two minutes. If I hear no objection, may I take it that the Second Committee approves the time limits just outlined for statements in explanation of vote, rights of reply, and points of order at the 81st session? I hear no objection. It is so decided. I take the opportunity to remind delegations that in order to facilitate the interpretation of statements into the six official languages, written copies of all statements delivered in the committee should be sent to the usual address, you know it, statements@un.org, at least two hours in advance of delivery. Distinguished delegates, I now invite the Committee to turn its attention to the organization of work for this session contained in document A/C.2/81/L.1. Pursuant to General Assembly decision 65/530, the Bureau of the Committee has decided on multiple mandatory deadlines for the submission of proposals as set out in the programme of work. Pursuant to General Assembly decision 80/520B adopted earlier this year, the Assembly also decided that the mandatory deadline for the submission of any new draft proposals should be the organizational meeting of the Committee. As communicated to delegates, the Bureau has set a deadline of 12 noon today for any new draft proposals under any of the items or sub-items allocated to the Committee. In line with Assembly decisions, the Committee will need to adhere strictly to the deadlines established in the programme of work. Unless the Bureau takes an exceptional decision to extend a deadline, submissions after the deadline will not be taken into consideration. As in previous sessions, in the event of a need for an exceptional extension of a deadline, the main sponsor of the draft proposal should make a written request to the chair of the committee no later than 24 hours before the established deadline date. The request should include the justification for an extension and additional length of time that would be needed. In line with decision 65/530 and based on the past practices, Any request will be considered by the Bureau on a case-by-case basis, and the Committee will be informed accordingly. I would also like to highlight that the Secretariat requires a minimum of 96 hours counted from the business day following that on which a proposal was submitted for the processing and issuing in all official languages the draft proposals that are based on previous versions of adopted resolutions. This timeframe excludes weekends and holidays. For any new draft proposal, a longer time may be required depending on the length of the text proposed. Guidelines for the submission of draft proposals are available in the committee's module or on the eDelegate platform and on the Second Committee's public website. The processing time for any draft submitted that is not in compliance with the guidelines will be delayed. In relation to the Committee's informal consultation process on draft proposals, I am glad to inform you that the process of the identification of the facilitators is almost complete. The Bureau will hold a briefing for facilitators of draft resolution in the Committee next week, Monday, 5th of October, at 1:15 p.m. in this conference room. I would like to inform you that, as was done in previous sessions, and in the interest of planning and predictability, the Bureau is taking a coordinated approach to the convening of informal consultations on draft resolutions. The Bureau proposes that they are held in person. In order for us to successfully complete the programme of work of the Second Committee, let me once again stress the importance of discipline in honouring the deadlines for submission of draft proposals as indicated in document A/C2/81/L.1. It is also important to make full use of the time in between the schedule of formal committee meetings to prepare draft proposals or establish group positions and conduct informal consultations. Action on draft resolution will be scheduled during the second-half of the work of the committee in November. Delegations are therefore requested to do their utmost in concluding negotiations in time in order to allow for action on the draft resolutions to be taken on the dates identified in document A/C.2/81/L.1. Distinguished delegates, regarding the joint thematic meeting of the Second Committee and the Economic and Social Council on the morning of 19 October, the Bureau has proposed it to be focused on the theme, closing the financing gap in a changing global economy, innovative finance for accelerated SDG action. More information on the joint thematic meeting will be circulated to delegations in advance. Then you dialogue with executive secretaries of regional commissions, will address the topic, regional cooperation in age of fragmentation, harnessing resilient trade, transport, and connectivity for sustainable development. And this will be held in the morning of 20 October. A concept note will be circulated in advance. In accordance with organization of work of the second committee, the general debate is scheduled to begin on Monday morning, 5th of October. The theme for the debate is Financing Sustainable Development in a Changing Global Economy to Accelerate Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. As was the case in the past, the general debate will be preceded by a keynote address. This year's speaker will be Professor Perfect Lendu-Engoie of Cornell University. I look forward to his presentation and encourage you to engage in an interactive dialogue when I on the floor for comments and questions after his presentation. With regard to the conclusion of our work, at its second meeting on 11 September, the General Assembly approved a conclusion date of 25 November for the Committee. I would like to remind delegations that sufficient time is required for the report of the Committee to be processed and issued in time for consideration by the General Assembly plenary before its scheduled recess. Distinguished delegate, I would like to highlight a number of pertinent paragraphs in the report of the General Committee, A/81/250. In paragraph 4h, attention is drawn to paragraph 19 of Resolution 77/335, in which the Assembly urged Member States, when considering establishing new mandates for meetings of the Assembly, to be mindful of existing mandated meetings and in that regard requested the Secretary to advise the Member States of any existing mandated meetings that overlapped in date or theme, which here is the aim of minimizing the overall number of high-level thematic and commemorative meetings. Related to this, in paragraph 9h, attention is drawn to paragraph 24 of resolution 79/123, 327, in which the Assembly decided, starting from the 81st session, to limit the number of high-level meetings mandated by the Assembly to be convened during the high-level week to a maximum of three. In paragraph 4i, attention is drawn to paragraph 37 of resolution 77/335, in which the Assembly stressed the necessity of aligning the agendas of the Assembly and its main committees consistent with resolution 75/325 and encouraged the Assembly and its main committees to examine on a case-by-case basis all the resolutions and agenda items that focus on the same area based on their purpose, relevance, and content. In paragraph 19e, attention is drawn to paragraph 31 of resolution 79/327, in which the Assembly decided, on a trial basis, to put on hold consideration of new proposals for international days, weeks, months, years, and decades during the 81st and 82nd session, and requested the President of the General Assembly, effective from the 81st session, to group all proclamation requests for international commemoration into a single resolution per agenda item, where each proposed commemoration contains its own operative paragraph focused on its establishment. Accordingly, the Secretariat should not issue any draft resolution or decision that contains individual proclamation requests, either in the plenary or in the main committees. Such requests shall be communicated to the President of the General Assembly. Turning now to questions related to the programme budget, in paragraph 21


Russian Federation [21:39]:

Madam Chair, good morning. Good morning to you and good morning to all of our colleagues in this room. I congratulate you on the opening of the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly. and congratulate you on the adoption of the first document, L1. I'd like to make a comment. It has to do with the fact that regrettably, we haven't seen a number of reports. in terms of the documents submitted for today's event. I'd like to ask the Secretariat of the UN to move more quickly and to present the reports specifically on energy and on sandstorms. Thank you.


2nd Committee · Chair [22:36]:

I thank the distinguished delegate of the Russian Federation for their comment. And I think that the Secretariat took note of your remarks. Is there any other request for intervention at this point? If it's not the case, may I take it that the Committee wishes to take note of the status of the documentation for this session as contained in document A/C2/81/L1/Add.1? I hear no objection. It is so decided. I now invite the Committee to begin its plenary consideration of item 139 on programme planning. Allow me to recall that as set out in the report of the Committee for Programme and Coordination on its 66th session, document A/81/16, the Committee did not provide conclusions and recommendations on programmes. As such, and in accordance with paragraph 7 of the Assembly resolution 80/233, entitled "Programme planning", the Committee should consider the open programme plans of the proposed programme budget for 2027 for those mandates for which the Committee is responsible under the agenda item entitled "Programme planning", as announced in the message from the Secretary circulated through the e-delegate portal on 14 September. And as just approved by the Committee in its programme of work, the Committee will convene an informal meeting this morning directly following the conclusion of this meeting to hear comments on the relevant open programmes. As was the case in previous sessions, following the discussion in the formal meeting and in consultation with the Bureau, I will prepare a summary for transmission to the Fifth Committee. I will momentarily adjourn this plenary meeting to proceed with a formal meeting on programme planning, for which a list of speakers was circulated through the e-delegates portal on 29 September. Before concluding, does any delegation wish to take the floor at this stage under item 139 on programme planning? If so, please, I invite you to push your microphone. I see no requests for the floor. And under the circumstances, distinguished delegates, as I mentioned earlier, the Committee will begin its substantive work next Monday, on 5 October, 10 a.m., in this conference room, with a keynote address followed by the opening of the Committee's general debate. As already announced, the formal meeting on programme planning will begin directly following the adjournment of this meeting. I invite delegates to remain seated for the next part of the committee's work. We'll resume in five minutes. The meeting is adjourned.