{. . .} The main purpose of this informal plenary this morning is for me to address you and to give an update on the big outstanding issue that we have, that is the crime of aggression. I would first of all like of thank His Royal Highness Prince Zeid for so ably chairing the work of the Working Group on Crime of Aggression, and I would like to thank all of you for the very positive contributions that you have made both inside of the Working Group on the Crime of Aggression and also in your tireless efforts outside of the room, in developing new ideas, in consulting, informally, bilaterally, in groupings.

We are nearing the end of the conference and we have to agree very soon on what it is that we can adopt tomorrow. You know that we have made every effort to reach consensual agreement and we will continue to do so with your help and with your assistance. I am encouraged by the spirit in which you have been working. And I certainly appeal to you for your continued support. I think the consultations over the past few days have been very important and I believe that they have made a significant contribution to this process. You are all familiar with some of the ideas that have been put forward and are still under discussion. And I myself and the chair of the Working Group, Prince Zeid, have had numerous informal consultations and bilateral consultation on the contents of those suggestions. I do believe that they have gathered significant support in this room among States and I also believe that they are not at this point meeting with the agreement of everybody, so certainly not meeting with consensus. This is why I have drafted a new paper that will be circulated to you. It is a non-paper that addresses some of the big outstanding issues, and is actually limited to those. So please, look at this non-paper with a very clear understanding that this is of course complementary to the old Rev.2 that was forwarded to us by the Working Group. I have tried to capture in this non paper those ideas that I hope can help us move forward and get us close to the final stage of our deliberations. The paper does not make any step forward as far as alternative 1 and alternative 2 in article 15 bis, which is the big outstanding issue still.