ABSTRACT
On Saturday 23 December 2000, when most United Nations delegates had left for the Christmas break, the General Assembly approved the new scales of assessment for the United Nations' regular budget as well as for the budget of its peacekeeping operations. The agenda items on the scale of assessments were introduced in the fifth committee on 2–6 October and 3–6 October. The Rio Group introduced on 19 December its formal proposal on the peacekeeping scale to the fifth committee. It could be argued that one of the major strategic triumphs of the negotiation was to understand when the fifth committee needed to be circumvented and when it needed to be taken fully into account. Two particular tactical challenges were: maintaining a dispassionate and business-like atmosphere in the committee, and arranging for a "soft landing" of the parallel consultations in the committee. Both challenges were successfully met.
