A/49/PV.98 General Assembly

This morning, the General Assembly will consider the reports of the Fifth Committee on agenda items 17 (b) and 124. I request the Rapporteur of the Fifth Committee, Mr. Larbi Djacta of Algeria, to introduce the reports of the Fifth Committee in one intervention.

If there is no proposal under rule 66 of the rules of procedure, I shall take it that the General Assembly decides not to discuss the reports of the Fifth Committee that are before it today.

Statements will therefore be limited to explanations of vote or position. The positions of delegations regarding the recommendations of the Fifth Committee have been made May I remind members that under paragraph 7 of decision 34/401 the Assembly agreed that “When the same draft resolution is considered in a Main Committee and in plenary meeting, a delegation should, as far as possible, explain its vote only once, i.e., either in the Committee or in plenary meeting unless that delegation’s vote in plenary meeting is different from its vote in the Committee”. May I also remind delegations that, also in accordance with General Assembly decision 34/401, explanations of vote are limited to 10 minutes and should be made by delegations from their seats. Before we begin to take action on the recommendations contained in the reports of the Fifth Committee, I should like to advise representatives that we are going to take decisions in the same manner as in the Committee.

In paragraph 4 of its report, the Fifth Committee recommends that the General Assembly should appoint Mr. Enrique Moret Echeverría as a member of the Committee on Contributions for a term of office beginning on 10 March 1995 and ending on 31 December 1995. May I take it that it is the wish of the General Assembly to appoint Mr. Moret Echeverría?

We have thus concluded our consideration of sub-item (b) of agenda item 17.

We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of agenda item 124. Programme of work

I should like to inform representatives that with regard to “An Agenda for Peace”, an issue the Assembly discussed at a previous session under agenda item 10, “Report of the Secretary- General on the work of the Organization”, a number of delegations have approached the President of the General Assembly to request that an informal open-ended working group of the Assembly be convened to consider the “Supplement to An Agenda for Peace” (A/50/60). The President of the General Assembly, bearing in mind those requests and also bearing in mind the statement by the President of the Security Council that appears in document S/PRST/1995/9, intends to convene, as soon as possible, an informal open-ended working group in order to consider the Supplement. Members will recall that at the forty-seventh session the Permanent Representative of Egypt, Ambassador Nabil Elaraby, and the Permanent Representative of Spain, Ambassador Juan Antonio Yañez Barnuevo, were designated Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively of the informal open-ended working group on “An Agenda for Peace”. The President of the Assembly has requested the Permanent Representative of Egypt and the Permanent Representative of Spain to serve again in those capacities and to arrange, on his behalf, for meetings of the working group to begin as soon as possible during the current session. The date of the first meeting will be announced in due course.