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IN THE CORRIDORS

The arrival on Monday of the Colombian delegate from New York heightened expectations that the Group of 77 might meet. The G-77, within the INCD negotiations, had not met since early in the second week of the Nairobi session, at which point the Latin American and Asian groups called for all regional instruments to be concluded by June 1994. Colombia had designated Brazil to lead the G-77 at several intergovernmental meetings, including the Geneva sessions of the UN Commission on Human Rights and UNCTAD and the Nairobi and Geneva sessions of the INCD. Due to the perception by many delegates that the Brazilian coordination of the G-77 in Nairobi was unfair, some resisted this arrangement at the second session of the INCD. The problem in holding a G-77 meeting at the Geneva session was that Colombia, the coordinator of the G-77 for this year, was not present. Moreover, it was unclear, even to the leaders of the regional groups within the G-77, exactly which country would act as coordinator in Colombia's absence. Several delegates mentioned that they had sent cables to their New York missions requesting Colombia's presence at this session.

The G-77 regional group Chairs met early Tuesday afternoon to discuss the INCD Chair's draft decision and the issue of coordination for the G-77 session scheduled for 5:00 pm. Brazil opened the meeting and passed the chair to Colombia.