INTERVENTION ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA BY MS. PRIM MASRINUAN, COUNSELLOR, PERMANENT MISSION OF THAILAND, AT THE PREPARATORY MEETING FOR THE 2ND PREPCOM ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTERNATIONAL LEGALLY BINDING INSTRUMENT UNDER THE UNCLOS ON THE CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF MARINE BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF AREAS BEYOND NATIONAL JURISDICTION (BBNJ) (New York, 24 June 2016)

Mr. Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

First of all, on behalf of the Group, I wish to thank you, Mr. Chair, for the "Chair's overview" of the 1st PrepCom which is a very helpful document for the preparation of the 2nd PrepCom, to be held this summer (26 August - 9 September 2016). Your compilation of issues as well as your general observations remind us of the fruitful discussion which has been conducted under your able leadership as well as the facilitators' excellent guidance. And if we have made a good progress, we also realized that there are a lot of questions and issues to be discussed and examined in greater detail.

In this regard, we welcome the draft agenda as well as the proposed programme of work which appropriately allocates time for the discussion of each topic both in informal working group and then in plenary, without any overlapping meeting. We trust that such organization of the meeting would once again bring about good interactive exchange of views. We would support your endeavour to keep the momentum of the discussion and move the process forward.

Mr. Chair,

We are also pleased to see that a new informal working group on cross-cutting issues has been included in the draft programme of work, as per the request at the 1st PrepCom. We are of the view that this open-topic is necessary to address some fundamental issues such as the definition of different terms that are of technical nature or need more clarification in the context of the development of a new legally binding instrument on BBNJ. This will also give the opportunity to discuss some pending issues that are of cross-cutting nature such as the scope of the new instrument and the guiding approaches and principles that were under consideration in the last PrepCom.

Mr. Chair,

Finally, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, I would like to renew our full support and confidence in your able leadership to steer the PrepCom in its mandate conferred by the General Assembly Resolution 69/292. We remain ready to constructively engage in this process.

Before ending, please allow me to express our sincere appreciation to DOALOS for their hard work in preparing important meetings on Oceans and Law of the Sea during the past weeks.

I thank you Mr. Chair.