This categorization was made electronically with the three categories of square brackets being marked in yellow, green and red respectively on AHG/50, the latest version of the Protocol text available during the March session.

2. An analysis carried out by the University of Bradford of this Category III text for which there are "Strong conceptual differences in views" in the Preamble and the 23 Articles of the Protocol showed that there are a number of issues which occur in more than one place in the text. These principal Category III issues are listed in the Annex.

3. On the opening day, Monday 10 July 2000, of the Ad Hoc Group session, Ambassador Tibor Tóth, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Group, presented his appreciation of the current state of the negotiations of the Protocol. In considering a wider perspective, Ambassador Toth observed that on the one hand, some felt that the negotiations were going too quickly and might thereby lead to mortgaging of some aspects of their national positions and, on the other hand, others were conscious of the widespread political expectations that the Protocol will be completed before the Review Conference in 2001.

4. In the specific context of the Ad Hoc Group, he noted that in the earlier sessions this year there had been a slowing down of the negotiations with a reduction in the rate of removal of the remaining brackets; fewer interventions during the Ad Hoc Group meetings with fewer delegations wishing to speak; fewer national working papers; fewer Friends of the Chair asking for the allocation of more time for their meetings; and in certain areas, the Friends of the Chair not needing all the time available to them for formal meetings. It was thus evident that the process of incremental removal of brackets was slowing down and, in order to maintain the momentum of the negotiations, it was necessary to find new techniques for dealing with the remaining difficult issues. Although such a slowdown was a natural process, due to the Ad Hoc Group being faced with the remaining most difficult and sensitive brackets, Ambassador Tóth noted that one possible dangerous result of slowdown was inertia in the negotiations -- and any such inertia might limit the future progress of the negotiations.

5. Consequently, in looking ahead to this four week session, Ambassador Tóth encouraged the Friends of the Chair to explore and make further incremental progress in the removal of brackets to the extent possible particularly in respect of the Category I "Little controversy, relatively easy to resolve" and Category II "Medium level of disagreement" text. Such progress would be both within the formal meetings of the Friends of the Chair and in any informal consultations conducted by the Friends of the Chair. In respect of the Category III areas of the text, in order to facilitate progress in the negotiations, Ambassador Tóth would carry out a series of bilateral discussion with delegations to explore how the Category III "Strong conceptual differences in views" issues might be resolved. These bilateral discussions would be a parallel, but complementary, approach to the work of the Friends of the Chair. He would both be approaching delegations with conceptual ideas and encouraging any delegations that wished to discuss these issues to approach him and, if possible, provide their own inputs into the discussions.. These Category III bilateral discussions would be structured during the four week session as follows:

In addition, Ambassador Tóth would provide feedback to the Ad Hoc Group as a whole on his perceptions following these bilateral discussions on a weekly basis. This feedback would be given both orally and, when the discussions provide a clearer picture of the conceptual options before the Ad Hoc Group, in writing.

6. The political expectations that the Protocol will be completed before the Review Conference in 2001 was shown by the circulation to the Ad Hoc Group during the first week of this session of the relevant parts of the Final Document of the XIIIth Ministerial Conference of the Movement of the Non-Aligned Countries held on 8 - 9 April 2000 in Cartagena, Colombia. This said:

In addition the Ad Hoc Group was made aware of the Conclusions of the G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting on 12 - 13 July 2000 in Miyazaki, Japan which included the statement that :

7. In a further development, on Wednesday 12 July 2000, Ambassador Noburu of Japan, The Friend of the Chair on the Seat of the Organization announced that the official bids are to be submitted on 13 October 2000 to the Friend of the Chair by the governments of The Netherlands and of Switzerland.

8. There is thus a sense of awareness in Geneva that a further stage in the negotiation of the Protocol has been reached and one that would be addressing the key outstanding issues.

9. On Thursday 13 July 2000, a further three Briefing Papers and an Evaluation Paper in the series produced by the Department of Peace Studies of the University of Bradford, UK were presented and distributed to all the Ad Hoc Group delegations:

The analysis, mentioned above, carried out by the University of Bradford of the Category III text for which there are "Strong conceptual differences in views" in the Preamble and the 23 Articles of the Protocol showed that there are a number of issues which occur in more than one place in the text. In the Annex these issues are subdivided into the three groups used in the analysis in Evaluation Paper No. 18, The BTWC Protocol: Revised Proposed Complete Text for an Integrated Regime, July 2000 which considered each of the Category III issues and how they had been resolved in the Bradford revised proposed complete text for the Protocol.

Graham S. Pearson

15 July 2000