STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA BY AMBASSADOR DAUDI N. MWAKAWAGO, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNTIED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS, CHAIRMAN OF THE GROUP OF 77, IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLYAT ITS INFORMAL CONSULTATIONS ON AGENDA ITEM 157:UNITED NATIONS REFORM

New York, 17 December 1997

Mr. President,

On behalf of the Group of 77 and China, I should like to thank you for convening this important informal consultations to consider the draft resolution on recommendations on United Nations reform. When we began the negotiations on this draft resolution, about one month ago, it was difficult to predict that it would be possible to reach the conclusion stage before the adjournment of the 52^nd Session for December and New Year holidays. In this sense, the adoption of this important resolution on reform constitutes a New Year gift to the Member States and the Organization. This is also a gesture of confidence in the Secretary-General and the support for his reform measures and proposals by Member States.

In this regard, I should like to underscore the deep appreciation of the Group of 77 and China for the dedication, efforts and strong and able leadership that you, Mr. President, has demonstrated in the negotiations for both the resolutions on actions and recommendations.

We all acknowledge that these negotiations have been quite tough, given the polarization of positions and concerns of various delegations, which existed at the beginning of this exercise. The negotiations process itself was quite complex - both at the levels of the major groups and the facilitators.

In this context, the Group of 77 and China held a series of meetings to hammer out a common position as a basis for negotiations with our developed countries’ partners at the informals with the facilitators. In this regard, we appreciate the efforts made by the facilitators who held a number of open-ended consultations to enable the participation in the negotiations process of as many member states as possible.

In the negotiations, it was quite clear that member states attach great importance to the recommendations on reform. Unlike the proposals on actions, member states consider recommendations to fall in their exclusive domain in terms of determining how they should be implemented. That is why the G-77 and China, as well as other member states, took the negotiations very seriously. In particular the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) of the Group of 77 and Non-aligned countries prepared comprehensive amendments to the draft resolution which were presented at the negotiation process.

In this regard, I should like to register my appreciation for the great support and solidarity I have received from the Group of 77 and China and the Non-Aligned countries, during the whole process of negotiating these reform measures and proposals. This unity and solidarity was a source of our strength in these negotiations.

We are pleased to note that most of the JCC proposals have been taken into account or accommodated in a language which delegations can live with. In this regard, I should like to express the appreciation of our Group for the spirit of cooperation shown by our partners during the negotiations.

This resolution is thus an outcome of the hard work all of us have put in the negotiations in the past weeks. We hope it will provide a good basis for the implementation of the recommendations on the reform of the United Nations.

Thank you, Mr. President.