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, at the Security Council meeting on the UN Peacekeeping operations

We are grateful to you, Mr. President, for organizing today’s meeting on collective action to improve United Nations peacekeeping operations.

We thank Secretary-General Guterres, Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, and Director Fatimata Touré for their briefings.

We support the Secretary-General’s focus on improving the effectiveness of United Nations peacekeeping operations and his emphasis on the importance of achieving political solutions to conflicts. Indeed, the main task of the United Nations peacekeeping presence is assisting the parties in reaching political agreements on peaceful settlements and ensuring that they are implemented as quickly as possible.

In the absence of progress on the political track, missions can remain in countries for years. Of course, United Nations peacekeeping initiatives need to be adapted to the realities of today. They are deployed in difficult and dangerous conditions and increasingly in situations of domestic political crisis, compounded by grave humanitarian and socioeconomic situations.

The most acute challenges of all are those presented by transborder issues such as the movement of weapons, organized crime, terrorism and drug trafficking. However, even under such difficult circumstances it is crucial to respect the Charter of the United Nations and the core principles of peacekeeping — the consent of the parties, impartiality and the non-use of force, except in self-defence and to protect the mandate. In our view, the increasingly frequent proposals that have lately been made to interpret them flexibly or revise them are pernicious. That particularly applies to calls to replace the ideology behind the implementation of peacekeeping operations with so-called proactive and robust peacekeeping and give Blue Helmets the right to the first use of force. It is extremely doubtful that such an approach can facilitate the desired goal, which is reducing the number of deaths among peacekeepers.

On the contrary, it runs a high risk of producing the opposite effect. If the Blue Helmets’ neutral authority is undermined, it can turn them into active participants S/PV.8218 United Nations peacekeeping operations 28/03/2018 24/86 18-08789 in conflicts, with an inevitable increase in the number of clashes with opponents and therefore the numbers of victims. Robust mandates cannot become routine and must be finely calibrated for each individual situation where they are deemed truly necessary, especially considering that the experience available so far of granting peacekeepers extra powers, for example in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mali, has not yet convinced us that the results on the ground fully justify the sacrifices by the peacekeepers in those operations.

More than anything, we believe that the greatest potential for increasing peacekeepers’ safety lies in strengthening their professional training and their material and technical equipment. The principle of impartiality is also key, including in the context of implementing mandates for the protection of civilians. Peacekeepers should never, on any pretext, however well-meaning, side with one or another party to a conflict, let alone cite any non-United Nations principles that might permit the possible use of force with regard to a host State.

The overall success of United Nations peacekeeping activities, as well as of each individual mission, depends largely on the coherence of the efforts of the participants involved in the process, above all the Security Council, the Secretariat, the troop-contributing countries and the host States. In that regard, it is important to ensure not only that each link in the chain carries out its responsibilities conscientiously but also that the collaboration between each of those links is effective, confidential and transparent.

As always, the Organization’s new peacekeeping challenges demand comprehensive discussion and consideration on the part of Member States and the Secretariat with a view to coming up with consistent, balanced approaches, dealing with the fragmented nature of the political and legal frameworks, developing relevant doctrines and producing normative documents in good time and based on analysis of accumulated experience. In that connection, it is important to ensure that any reform of United Nations peacekeeping activities is carried out in strict accord with the decisions of Member States.

Any arbitrary interpretation, as there has been with the concept of information gathering and analysis for intelligence in peacekeeping, could have a negative impact on Member States’ interaction with the Secretariat and could also risk damaging the credibility of the United Nations in the conduct of peacekeeping operations. In our view, using intelligence for implementing a peacekeeping operation’s activities is something that should be done based solely on the Charter of the United Nations and with the consent of the host Government, and only for the clearly defined and limited legitimate purposes of ensuring peacekeepers’ safety and protecting civilians.

Any use of intelligence flexibly or for political purposes, including fulfilling a mandate’s political tasks, is unacceptable. We hope that the relevant conclusions will be drawn and that we will soon see results. It is also extremely important to establish constructive cooperation with host States, since the potential success of United Nations operations is directly dependent on it. International assistance should support local and regional efforts, not replace them.

Peacekeeping operations’ mandates should be clear, realistic and fully capable of responding to the challenges facing the United Nations and the particular situation on the ground, with an emphasis on addressing the specific reasons for individual conflicts, not resolving various generic initiatives. In order to optimize peacekeeping operations on the economic front, it is advisable to accompany the modification of their mandates with an emphasis on reducing these kinds of side issues.

Well-considered exit strategies are also essential, along with plans, as needed, for transforming peacekeeping operations into other types of political presence or as support to United Nations country teams’ reconstruction and development efforts. In that regard, it is important to take account of the views of both the host Governments and the country teams in order to avoid distorted interpretations of missions’ mandates or the possibility of overburdening them, which will ultimately make their implementation more effective. A particularly important factor in implementing peacekeeping operations is genuine partnership on the part of the members of the international community.

The efforts of regional and subregional organizations operating in their areas of responsibility, as outlined in Chapter VIII of the Charter, have become increasingly significant in that regard. In fact, no one has advanced this issue further than the African Union. We believe that it will be impossible to establish lasting peace throughout the continent without the active efforts of Africans themselves. It will therefore be important to work to ensure that it is the countries of Africa that play the major role in determining the pathways to peace and security in accordance with their own principle of African solutions to African problems.

The Russian Federation has solid experience in training peacekeepers. Russian higher education institutions have successfully trained personnel, including women, for African law-enforcement bodies. Since 2000, more than 350 foreign police peacekeepers have been trained at the United Nationscertified Preparation Centre of the All-Russia Advanced Training Institute of Russia’s Ministry of the Interior in Domodedovo, outside Moscow.

The military educational and scientific centre of the Russian Federation’s combined land-based armed forces military academy in Naro-Fominsk, as well as our armed forces’ international anti-mine centre in Nakhabino, are also prepared to train peacekeepers from developing countries.

We have developed a system that includes both general and specialized training immediately prior to deploying peacekeepers to specific missions. We will continue to provide all necessary assistance for strengthening the capacities of United Nations peacekeeping.