Timing and Location of the Commission and its Committees in 2026 and 2027

This paper provides a list of historical and agreed meeting times of other related organizations to facilitate the discussion by members of dates and location for the next meeting of the Commission (Appendix 1). The current approach based on COM08 decision is that the Secretariat organize meetings in a location other than Tokyo using resources allocated by Members if no Member agrees to host the meetings. To date, the funds have been drawn from the Working Capital Fund. In the proposed budget, you will note that it is proposed to transition to include the costs as a recurring item in the General Fund rather than an occasional expense with funds drawn from the Working Capital Fund.
Potential dates are proposed for 2026 and 2027 in Appendix 2 and Members are asked to consider committing to dates that allow for advance booking of facilities and / or offers to host these sets of meetings. This is common with other RFMO. The proposed timing takes into account the Lunar New Year Spring festival in China as well as fisheries operations (notably Pacific saury).