Mr. Chair,

1. At the outset, allow me to register the extreme disappointment of my group at this impasse in the negotiations to adopt the agenda of the SBI, an exercise in which our Group has not only indulged in good faith but tried its best to break the impasse.

2. My Group, as well as other groups, have put forward several constructive suggestions and ideas to break this impasse. In fact, during the informal discussions last week, our Group had put forward no less than four specific suggestions, none of which were agreed to by the proponents of the provisional agenda item 19.

3. However, in response to the request of the Chair of SBI, G77 and China had, subsequently, put forward a proposal in writing. Another group had also put forward a proposal in writing showing the earnestness with which we wanted the impasse resolved. While discussing the two proposals last Friday evening, in a spirit of compromise, all of us had worked on the G77 and China proposal as the basis, in good faith and we were able to come to a compromise text, which, in our opinion, incorporated the concerns of the proponents of the agenda item as well. In other words, we worked out what we call a 'clean text' and such a text was also circulated. I would like, at this juncture, thank all the delegations, including the delegations of Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus, for working on our proposal and arriving at this clean text. We sincerely believed that this text would form the basis for the starting of work of the SBI this week.

4. However, this morning, it came as a rude shock that the proponents of the agenda items proposed discussing the agenda items abinitio that is go right back to where we were at the beginning of last week, as if none of the discussions on Friday mattered. This, in the opinion of our Group, displays both a complete lack of seriousness in dealing with the issue before us and an attitude of nonchalance towards all the other Parties assembled here eager to find an acceptable resolution to the impasse so that the substantive work of the SBI will commence.

Mr. Chair,

5. This is a party-driven process. We recognise the right of every country to propose agenda items. It is in this spirit that we have indulged the agenda items proposed by the three countries. But a Party-driven process also imposes a responsibility on countries to restrain from stopping the work of the UNFCCC beyond reasonable limits. In this issue, we believe that we have indeed reached that point.

6. We in G77 and China want to start the work now. We also believe that the issues raised by the proponents of the resolution are worth discussing under item 17 of the agenda, even if they don't quite belong there. As we mentioned earlier, they belong to Article 7.3 of the Convention whose remit is the Conference of Parties.

7. Be that as it may, we have displayed considerable flexibility in agreeing to the suggestion to discuss this under item 17 as well as have a clear statement from the Chair of SBI giving reassurance to the proponents of the agenda items that their issues will indeed be discussed. We cannot and do not want to start the discussions on the agenda items all over again completely disregarding the progress we have achieved.

8. We in the Group convey our willingness to accept the 'clean text' and convey our reassurances to the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus that their issues will receive the consideration they deserve.

9. However, we do not want to pre-judge the process or its outcome. We cannot have the reassurances given by the Parties on the agenda item conditional on the establishment of a contact group or conditional on a certain set of conclusions being reached in these discussions. This would not be acceptable. The process is as much Party-driven as the adoption of agenda is. Let us first address the agenda adoption.

Mr. Chair,

10. We have conveyed our position in clear terms on where we stand. We hope we will be able to start the discussions in SBI immediately. We appeal to the proponents to let us resume work forthwith.

Thank you Mr. Chair.