Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Statement by representative of the Russian Federation Alexander Repkin after the UN Security Council vote on the draft resolution to extend the UNAMID mandate

Mr. President,

Russia has voted in favor of the draft resolution to extend without amendments the mandate of the UN - African Union joint peacekeeping mission in Darfur for a 4-month period.

We accepted with understanding the position of the pan-African organization as it said that a comprehensive analysis would be required in order to develop the best concept of responsible withdrawal of the peacekeeping mission.

We also noted the assurances of the Secretariat that the term of the mission’s closure that the Security Council has negotiated – June 2020 – would be strictly observed.

We repeatedly call to abstain from intrusive attempts to link the situation in Darfur to the developments in “greater Sudan”. We do not exclude that perhaps, if the work with the irreconcilable Sudanese opposition had been that diligent – and we all know where those people prefer to live – peace would have much faster come to Darfur.

However, the situation that is developing in this Sudanese region at the moment proves the necessity to transform peacekeeping efforts into peacebuilding support. All the conditions have been created to facilitate this process. The latest strategic review prepared jointly by UN and AU representatives, expresses same ideas.

We welcome the decision of the Transitional Military Council to cancel decree 102 that some of our colleagues and the leadership of the UN Secretariat called one of the main obstacles on the way of transferring peacekeeping bases to the Sudanese. As we see, Sudanese authorities keep their promise and remain committed to mutually respectful cooperation.

In conclusion, we expect the September joint special report to present concrete proposals as to how to implement decisions of the Security Council pertaining to drawdown of the UNAMID. We emphasize that we stand against any attempts to amend the drawdown schedule. It is high time we focused on restoration and economic development of Darfur – this is what should be the priority of the global community.

Thank you.