(A/35/479, A/36/353 and Corr.2 and Add.1 and 2, A/37/418 and Corr.1 and Add.1, A/38/434, A/39/521 and Add.1 and 2 and A/40/313 and Add.l), published information communicated to him by Member States on their military expenditures in standardized form using the reporting instrument. 10. In the same resolution, the General Assembly also requested the Secretary-General, with the assistance of an ad hoc group of cualified experts, (a) to refine further the reporting instrument; and (b) to examine and suqqest solutions to the question of comparinq military expenditures among different States and between different years, as Well as to the problems of verification that would arise in connection with agreements on the reduction of military expenditures. 11. The Group of Experts on the Reduction of Military Budgets appointed by the Secretary-General completed its report (A/S-12/7, annex) 4J in 1982, in which it, inter alia, concluded that the political and technical aspects of international and intertemporal comparisons of military expenditures are closely and continuously interrelated and that the political aspects may even be the fundamental ones. The Parties must show the political will to arrive at agreed solutions and to provide the data and other assistance needed for comparison and verification purposes. 12. It also concluded that, as in the case of other disarmament aqreements, a verification system will be necessary to provide assurances that all Parties were in compliance with the agreement, with due consideration to the nature of agreements on reduction of military expenditures. The Group was of the view that negotiations on the reduction of military expenditures should proceed on the basis that their results would not diminish any State’s security; that agreement reached could be at the global, regional or sub-regional level, among nuclear-weapon ’ States, other militarily significant States or among other States whether or not they are members of military alliances. 
**Analysis**
This text appears to be focused on international agreements and efforts to reduce military expenditures, with a emphasis on the political and technical aspects of comparison and verification. The discussion of verification systems and the need for political will suggests that the topic is more related to international relations and diplomacy rather than economic development or other specific sectors.

**Category**
International trade, Industry