A side conversation is a brief, informal discussion held between two or a small number of delegates outside the formal proceedings of a committee, conference, or plenary. It typically occurs in corridors, lounges, at the back of the room, or during unmoderated caucuses, and is understood to be non-binding and not part of the official record.
Side conversations serve several functions in diplomatic tradecraft:
- Probing positions: testing how flexible a counterpart is on a specific clause before committing publicly.
- Coalition management: smoothing tensions inside a bloc, or quietly peeling a delegate away from a rival bloc.
- Information exchange: sharing intelligence about third parties' likely votes or red lines.
- Face-saving: allowing concessions or retractions that would be politically costly if made in open debate.
Because they are unrecorded, side conversations rely heavily on personal trust and the convention that what is said informally will not be quoted publicly without consent. Breaching this norm — for example, by leaking a private remark to the press or chair — can durably damage a delegate's reputation and access. In Model UN, chairs often encourage side conversations during unmoderated caucuses as a way to accelerate drafting, but warn delegates that commitments made there must be re-confirmed in moderated debate or in the text of a working paper.
In professional diplomacy, side conversations on the margins of major summits — sometimes called pull-asides or bilaterals on the margins — can produce more substantive movement than the plenary itself. They are distinct from formal bilaterals, which are scheduled and minuted, and from back-channel communications, which involve sustained covert dialogue through intermediaries.
Example
During COP28 in Dubai in 2023, negotiators reported numerous side conversations in corridor huddles that helped bridge language on the 'transitioning away from fossil fuels' clause before it reached plenary.