A/38/PV.105 General Assembly

I should like to invite the attention of the General Assembly to document A/38/822, which contains a letter to me from the Secretary-General, in which he informs the Assembly that seven Member States are in arrears in the payment of their financial contributions to the United Nations within the terms of Article 19 of the Charter. 2. I should like to remind delegations that under Arti- cle 19 of the Charter "A Member of the United Nations which is in arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the Organization shall have no vote in the General Assem- bly if the amount of its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preced- ing two full years." 3. May I take it that the General Assembly decides to take note of this information? It- was so decided.

As representatives will recall, the General Assembly, at its 104th meeting, adopted decision 38/448 A, in which it decided to keep open agenda item 38 in order to allow for the continuation of informal consultations. At that time I informed the Assembly that discernible progress had been made in the exploratory process which had taken place up to that time, and I suggested that this process of consultations should be continued. I also indi- cated then that I would remain in permanent contact with countries and groups of countries participating in that consultation process and would convene a new multilat- eral meeting with representatives of those countries and groups of countries to hear a report on the progress of those consultations so that the General Assembly would be in a position to adopt appropriate decisions in order to launch the global negotiations. 16. Owing to my constitutional responsibilities as Presi- dent of Panama, which required my presence in that country, in March I requested Mohamed Sahnoun, Vice- President of the Assembly, to assume the responsibility of conducting informal consultations with delegations and to keep me informed of progress made in such con- sultations so that I could, on the basis of an assessment of the situation, propose to the Assembly at its resumed session appropriate action on this item. Mr. Sahnoun held a number ofinformal meetings with interested delegations and convened a meeting of the "Friends of the President" on 30 March. I should like to take this occasion to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Mr. Sahnoun for his contributions and for the very skilful and diplo- matic manner in which he has conducted the informal consultations. I should like also to express my thanks to all delegations for their understanding and co-operation throughout the consultation pro"ess. 17. I am pleased to note that the exploratory process which began during the current session of the Assem- bly came to a successful conclusion in February of this year with the preparation of a summary record. It is particularly noteworthy that the exploratory process was characterized throughout by an atmosphere of mutual understanding and goodwill. Many important concepts and issues concerning the nature and scope of the two- phase approach and its connection with related issues have been clarified. Furthermore, the exploratory process concluded with an agreement that the summary record could serve as a reference for Governments regarding agenda item 38 of the thirty-eighth session of the General Assembly.

I should like to thank all representatives for their co-opera- tion in the work of this resumed session. I also wish to thank the Secretary-General and the Secretariat staff. 22. In accordance with Assembly decision 38/456 of 20 December 1983 and bearing in mind the action taken by the Assembly at this meeting, the following items remain on the agenda of the thirty-eighth session: item 38, "Launching of global negotiations on international eco- nomic co-operation for development"; item 40, "Observ- ance of the quincentenary of the discovery of America"; item 41, "Question of Cyprus"; item 42, "Implemen- tation of the resolutions of the United Nations"; and item 138, "Consequences of the prolongation of the armed conflict between Iran and Iraq". 23. I declare suspended the thirty-eighth session of the General Assembly.