Statement by Mr. Hiroshi Onuma

First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations

On agenda item 130: Special Political Missions (SPMs)

Main Part of the Sixty-Seventh Session

United Nations General Assembly

14 December 2012

 

 

 

Mr. Chairman,

At the outset, I wish to thank Ms. Maria Eugenia Casar, Assistant-Secretary-General/Controller and Mr. Collen Kelapile, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), for introducing their respective reports on this agenda item.  In the following statement, I wish to share my delegation’s views on these reports.

Mr. Chairman,

     

First of all, Japan supports each of the Special Political Missions’ respective mandates, and we also welcome the initiative by the Secretary-General to propose a budget allocation of USD 554,697,300 for 2013, representing a decrease of around 76 million dollars compared to the approved budget for 2012, which amounts to USD 631,190,300. 

 

However, we should bear in mind that the total of the proposed SPM budget for both 2012 and 2013 together exceeds the approved SPM budget for the biennium 2012-2013 by USD 113,088,800.  Our delegation would like to further look at the Secretary-General’s report to seek further efficiency in resource utilization.

 

Mr. Chairman,

 

My delegation welcomes the recommendations and comments presented in the ACABQ reports which carefully and technically scrutinized the proposed budget in a balanced manner, fully taking into account the mandate of each of the Missions.  We strongly believe that the recommendations of the ACABQ would be a good starting point for our discussion.

 

          Also, among the Missions, Japan would specifically like to reiterates the importance of the activities of the Sanction Monitoring Panels.  Our delegation will continue to fully support the activities conducted by these Panels so that they may be able to accomplish the mandates given to them by the Security Council.

 

Mr. Chairman,

 

With respect to the Funding and Backstopping of the SPMs, my delegation has participated constructively in the discussion and will continue to do so with a view to reaching a mutually acceptable conclusion.

Mr. Chairman,

In closing, I would like to reiterate that my delegation will participate actively and constructively in the discussions on this agenda item.

I thank you Mr. Chairman.