Madame President,

1. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. Good morning to you, Madam President, and Colleagues! It is wonderful to be in New York City with colleagues from capital for the second substantive session of the intergovernmental conference on the BBNJ instrument. I am honored to speak on behalf of the Federated States of Micronesia. As always, my delegation has full confidence that, through your leadership, significant progress will be achieved in this session building upon the accomplishments from the previous substantive
2. My delegation wishes to align itself with the statement delivered by the respective Chairs of the Group of 77 and China, the Alliance of Small Island States, and the Pacific Small Island Developing States; and wishes to elaborate further in our national capacity.
3. We are pleased with the President’s excellent Aid to Negotiations document. In our view, it captures the major views expressed throughout the first substantive session of the IGC as well as during the work of the Preparatory Committee. We are optimistic that this Aid to Negotiations, upon further consideration during this substantive session, will bring us much closer to a zero-draft of a BBNJ instrument.
4. My delegation is very well pleased that the President’s Aid to Negotiations also highlights, with delicate balance, some of the key issues that we consider to be extremely important. Allow me to highlight a few:
   • The inclusion of traditional knowledge among the general principles and approaches in the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction as well as in various specific elements of the document is a profound acknowledgment of the connectivity between traditional knowledge and their holders with respect to the marine species that migrate between national jurisdictions and beyond, the marine species and processes that our people have encountered over millennia of instrument-free traditional navigation on the high seas, and the best practices of indigenous peoples and local communities with respect to environmental management in national waters that are similar to and/or of relevance to the management practices under a BBNJ instrument. This is an area where science and traditional knowledge could bring about complementarity and synergies.
   • We also note with appreciation the consistent recognition of “adjacency” as acknowledgment of the key roles that adjacent coastal states could contribute towards the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. In our view, it is important to ensure that conservation measures in the ABNJ are “not incompatible” with those in the adjacent national jurisdiction, and that any conservation measures for BBNJ do not create any disproportionate burden upon the adjacent coastal states.
   • We are also pleased of the recognition that a BBNJ instrument shall not apply to the extended continental shelf and the resources therein. We are of the view that the Law of the Sea Convention already confirms that a coastal state “exercises over the continental shelf sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources.”
5. In conclusion, my delegation acknowledges with appreciation the inclusion of monetary benefits derived from access to MGRs in several sections in the Aid to Negotiations. At the same time, my delegation wishes to see further elaboration, both in the context of general principles and approaches and as an option to be considered, on the topic of capacity building and transfer of marine technology. In our view, capacity building and transfer of marine technology are among the essential components of non-monetary benefits derived from any access to marine genetic resources.

Thank you.