Permanent Council Decisions on the 2021 Annual Security Review Conference and Unified Budget
As delivered by Chargé d’Affaires, a.i Courtney Austrian
to the Special Permanent Council, Vienna
August 18, 2021
The United States appreciates the Swedish Chair’s efforts to find consensus on technical decisions related to the Annual Security Review Conference and the 2021 Unified Budget. We welcome the news that those efforts have finally born fruit, though well beyond the usual and expected timeline for passing these decisions.
The United States strongly believes participating States should not treat the decision to delay the 2021 ASRC until after the summer recess as precedent. This decision should not be understood to undermine the Porto decision, which requires that the ASRC meet before the summer recess.
We welcome the long-overdue consensus on the Unified Budget. Adopting the budget will make effective planning possible.
We regret that consensus has not yet been reached on procedural decisions relating to the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM).
It is really past time to confirm the dates for the HDIM. The annual review of implementation of human dimension commitments is a core function of this organization. I sincerely hope that the successes of today will inspire a positive movement by this Permanent Council for HDIM as well.
Thank you very much.
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