The Kingdom of the Netherlands’ response to the pre-draft report of the OEWG existing capacity-building programs and invites digitally developing countries and other potential partners to further specify their needs and expectations in this area. 44. Furthermore, the Netherlands would like to see a recommendation urging all member states to make capacity-building efforts in the use of ICTs a priority in their national and international capacity building efforts and to urge development organizations to incorporate these programs into their development agendas. In order to ensure sustainability of these capacity-building initiatives, attention should be paid to the cybersecurity aspect of these initiatives. Regular Institutional Dialogue 45. The Netherlands supports an open dialogue, that avoids duplication of existing work, within and outside of the UN, includes interested stakeholders, private sector, academia and civil society, be consensus-driven, but is not endorsing any new legally binding instrument, nor the result of a “politically binding instrument”. The Netherlands will consider any proposal with the aim of reinforcing existing international and multistakeholder dialogue on its merits, within the scope of the First Committee, thus limited to responsible State behaviour in cyberspace in the context of international peace and security. 46. The Netherlands does not recognize the current recommendations as an outcome of the previous discussions. The pre-draft gives the impression that the discussion on a regular institutional dialogue is finalized and reached a conclusion. Which in our opinion is not the case, the Netherlands, together with a large majority of states have expressed their support for the OEWG. We found the discussions to be constructive, useful and fruitful but there are several questions remaining, which have also been raised by other delegations. In particular, questions on the criteria, modalities, and costs, to be applied if such a dialogue were to be created and endorsed. This is currently not clearly stated in the pre-draft. The Netherlands considers the discussion ongoing. Therefore, the Netherlands is of the view that the recommendation to convene a new OEWG and GGE, both, at the 76th session of the UNGA is premature. Further discussion on the topic of regular institutional dialogue is definitely needed. 47. The Netherlands reiterates that any proposal must be designed to include all stakeholders. In our opinion, the pre-draft does not reflect enough the knowledge and the input the multi-stakeholders had during the discussions. The Netherlands would like the final report to not only mention the organization of the intersessional consultations, but to also reaffirm the importance of multistakeholderism and recognize the expertise and knowledge that lie outside the hands of governments. The Netherlands would recommend the report of the inter-sessional consultations to be annexed to the final report. 48. The Netherlands recognizes that the current COVID-19 pandemic brings us in an unprecedented situation. It raises important practical and substantive questions related to the future work of the OEWG and its upcoming meetings. The Netherlands remains open to discussions on adapting the process to these exceptional circumstances to make sure that all member states can fully participate to further substantive discussions and negotiations. Page 6 of 6