Statement by India delivered by Shri Animesh Choudhury, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India, on Agenda item 13 ‘Opening of New WIPO External Offices’ at the occasion of the 58th Series of the Meetings of the General Assembly of WIPO on 02nd October 2018.
Mr. Chair,
At the outset, India would like to thank the facilitator for his efforts to try to reach out to WIPO External Office applicants and other member states to find out a solution to this long pending matter of opening of new WIPO External Offices.
2. We regret that this assembly is yet to find a solution to resolve the impasse on WIPO External Offices.
Mr. Chair,
3. The Guiding Principles on opening of new WIPO External Offices were formulated in 2015 to guide this Assembly in making a decision to set up new External Offices. Unfortunately, all our discussions under this agenda item have centred on subjects well away from the Guiding Principles.
4. During the course of the past few months, a number of ideas and draft proposals were floated and brainstormed to resolve the issue but alas, we are all back to square one after all these discussions.
Mr. Chair,
5. It seems there is an urge to move away from discussions on any technical and merit-based approaches but we talk about adherence to the Guiding Principles which are in effect technical and merit-based.
Mr. Chair,
6. We all need to understand that opening of new WIPO External Offices that are strategically positioned and geographically representative will go a long way in improving the service delivery and efficiency of WIPO as an organization.
7. It seems we have tried, brain-stormed and exhausted all possible creative options and ideas in the last few days on this subject. India believes in the long held tradition of consensus in arriving at decisions in WIPO but on this subject, consensus still seems to elude us.
Mr. Chair,
8. There is a general understanding that the issue of opening of WIPO External Offices has become political, weaning away from the technical dimension. Hence, we would urge this Assembly once again to work in a constructive manner to resolve this deadlock. If we cannot build consensus, if we do not believe in a technical merit based approach then it time we consider resolving a political problem with a political democratic process.
Mr. Chair,
9. India would once again reiterate its willingness to constructively engage in the discussions on this agenda.
Thank You.
