The resolution also welcomed the practice whereby the Antarctic treaty consultative parties regularly provide the UN Secretary General with information on their consultative meetings and their activities in the Antartica. This transparency is to be welcomed and, on an operational level, the decision of the 24th Antarctic treaty consultative meeting, held in St. Petersburg in July in 2001, to establish a cost effective secretariat to the Antarctic treaty was an important one. This secretariat, which is to be based in Buenos Aires, will be of benefit in making the workings of the treaty more transparent.