Pacific countries urged to reach out to State Parties with difficult positions and find consensus on BBNJ treaty

United States, Aug. 29 -- One of the Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS) lead negotiators for the high seas biodiversity treaty says State Parties need to start reaching out and be engaged in the difficult conversation to find common grounds that will bring consensus before the next round of negotiations in March next year.

Janice Kemakeza, the deputy Permanent Representative of Solomon Islands at the United Nations is PSIDS lead negotiator on one of the four thematic negotiating groups on environment impact assessments (EIAs).

She said PSIDS will now engage Parties with opposing views to see if there are common grounds to work from.

"These are the difficult conversations that we are going to have. They know and we know that w...