Stage 2 begins with the initial meeting of the three parties.
1.
The Commission will prepare the
agenda and a Commissioner will chair the meeting.
2.
The purpose of the initial meeting is:
to bring the
parties together for the first time;
to review the
Statement of Intent and supporting documents and discuss
whether there is any information that should remain confidential
because disclosure could reasonably be expected to harm
the negotiations;
for
the Commission to inform the parties of the criteria
to be used to determine each party's readiness and to
describe the readiness process;
to discuss each
party's current state of readiness, how each can achieve
readiness and how long each party estimates it will take;
to
obtain a formal oral commitment from each party to negotiate
a treaty;
to begin a discussion
about the issues that each party would like to negotiate;
and
for
the parties to discuss their expectations regarding interim
measures.
3.
After the initial meeting, the Statement of Intent and
its supporting documents will be made available to the public on request,
with the exception of any information which the parties and the Commission
determine should remain confidential.