Sir

It is not true to say that the member states are refusing to pay their contribution to the ICGEB; on the contrary, at the latest meeting of our board of governors, all the delegations expressed their firm intention to fulfil their statutory financial obligation according to the agreed scale of contributions.

Furthermore, the New Delhi component of ICGEB is not funded by “grants” from Trieste: ICGEB is a single entity and its two components in Trieste and New Delhi are both funded from the ICGEB regular budget, an essential element of which comes from the Indian government. Finally, there is no restriction in the centre's budget: the two host governments (Italy and India) both intend to increase their contributions, and we are confident that the other member states will fulfil their obligations. If any minor financial restrictions are made, they would affect equally both the Italian and the Indian components.