On 7 September 2023, the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations informed Permanent Missions of Member States and Permanent Observer Missions and Offices of Non-Member States and of regional economic integration organizations to the United Nations of the following:

The Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, adopted at New York on 19 June 2023, will be open for signature by all States and regional economic integration organizations on 20 September 2023 and shall remain open for signature at United Nations Headquarters in New York until 20 September 2025.

For the opening for signature, no general ceremonial event will be held.

Signatories will sign the Agreement one by one in the Treaty Event signing area known as the Kuwaiti Boat Area on the ground floor of the General Assembly Building, beginning at 9:00 am on 20 September until 7:00 pm and continuing on 21 and 22 September from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in the same venue, as needed, to accommodate all wishing to sign the Agreement.

It is anticipated that each individual signing ceremony will last no more than 5 minutes. Signatories may come to the signing table at their designated time accompanied by up to two other officials. Due to time and logistic constraints, it will not be possible for signatories to deliver any statements at the signing venue. Arrangements for photographs will be in place.

Requests for appointments for specific time slots must be made in advance with the Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs by email at the following address: treatysection@un.org. The Treaty Section can also be reached by phone at +1 (212) 963-5047 (Front Desk). For States intending to sign at the level of Head of State, Head of Government or Minister for Foreign Affairs, only the name and title of the signing official is needed to arrange the time for signature. For States intending to have the Agreement signed by another representative, they would need to also provide in advance to the Treaty Section a signed copy of the instrument of full powers to secure the appointment time. Original instruments of full powers are expected at the time of signing or may be submitted in advance to the Treaty Section.