Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Statement by Ambassador Vassily A. Nebenzia, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, during the UN Security Council meeting on Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts (Aviation Security)

The Russian delegation would like to thank Ms. Fang Liu, Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and Mr. Amr Aboulatta, Chai of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), for their assessments and their informative contributions to our discussion.

 the issue of threats to civil aviation security held in July in the forum of the CTC. In the course of that meeting, the Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation made a presentation on my country’s best practices for implementing international civil aviation security standards.

In our view, the CTC’s July special meeting gave us food for thought, in particular regarding the remaining gaps in States’ fulfilment of the requirements for preventing terrorist acts and strengthening cooperation between States in that area. The fact is that all of these elements are reflected in the Council’s counter-terrorism resolutions, starting with the foundational resolution 1373 (2001).

Among the new challenges in this area we are again seeing the issue of foreign terrorist fighters, incidents at airports caused by the actions of insiders and airport staff, the use of increasingly sophisticated improvised explosive devices, and the danger posed by cyberattacks.

The previous arrangement affirmed that when formulating and implementing in practice rules and methods for ensuring aviation security, States should rely first and foremost on work carried out within the framework of ICAO, the international organization competent in these matters. In that context, it will be helpful to be able to rely on ICAO’s Global Aviation Security Plan, currently being considered, along a road map for its implementation and accompanying programmes and projects.

As we see it, our job, in discussing this topic in the Council, and that of the relevant work in the CTC, is, without duplicating any efforts, to ensure that States are helped to comprehensively implement the relevant standards and recommendations, while taking intoaccount the gaps that have been identified in their national counter-terrorism arrangements. We look forward to continued fruitful cooperation between the Security Council’s counter-terrorism bodies and ICAO.

We will also be interacting on the issue with the Monitoring Team of the Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015), concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida, and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities. This process will undoubtedly also involve the newly established United Nations Centre for Counter-Terrorism, which is mandated to strengthen the coordination of technical assistance both within and beyond the United Nations.

Our ultimate goal should be to create a sustainable system for protecting international civil aviation from acts of illicit interference, and the most effective means to that end is the coordinated action of States and international bodies within their respective mandates.