Explanation of vote by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia after the UNSC vote on a draft resolution renewing the mandate of 1540 Committee
Colleagues,
Russia is fully committed to the goals of UNSC resolution 1540, which we co-sponsored. We are interested in maintaining its non-proliferation and preventive character, and in full implementation of this document by all countries proceeding from their capacities. We will do our best to ensure that UNSC resolution 1540 remains an effective tool of non-proliferation that naturally supplements such “sectoral” mechanisms in this area as NPT, CWC, and BWC.
Being guided by these considerations, and also in the interests of maintaining consensus, we voted in favor of draft resolution on renewal of the mandate of 1540 Committee until November this year that was put forward by Mexico. However we still have some serious concerns regarding this document and the way the Committee worked in 2021-2022.
We are disturbed by the fact that the Council again had to limit itself to a purely technical rollover of the 1540 mandate in the interests of completing the Comprehensive Review of the resolution in the short-term prospective. We see no reason for this kind of a correlation. What we need is to not “check the box” that the review has been done, but to actually hold this review in a full-fledged manner, that among other things should make it possible for the key participants – states that are responsible for implementing UNSC resolution 1540 – to contribute meaningfully. Otherwise most of the added value of the review process will be wasted.
We are not sure that such full-scale review can be held in the next few months without any haste and prejudice to the format. We also have doubts as to the proposed modalities that are aimed at discussing specific problems of the Committee rather than pressing tasks in the context of non-proliferation.
We repeatedly said it at the Committee that preparations for the review process need to be much more active, and we called upon the Chair to enhance efforts at this track. Unfortunately, time was lost. In these circumstances, we offered to focus on elaborating a long-term mandate for the Committee so that it could keep working on all of its tasks without getting distracted by technical rollovers. As for the full-fledged review, we offered to hold it at a later stage. But our call was not heeded, and at the very last moment we had to confront the fact of another technical rollover.
Let me highlight some aspects regarding future parameters of 1540 mandate that we find critical.
Most importantly, we must preserve the unique spirit of cooperation that is characteristic of UNSCR 1540 and not let for it to erode. This is a prerequisite for positive attitude of the global community to this resolution. 1540 Committee should not turn into a “supervisor”, inspector, or a judge. When articulating a new mandate for this body, we must see to it that the Committee is not endowed with attributive functions that may allow it to interfere in states’ internal affairs.
As its main role, 1540 Committee should keep monitoring the implementation of the resolution and coordinate actions in the area of providing technical assistance to states upon request. We believe the future mandate should build around only those elements of Security Council’s former targeted resolutions regarding the 1540 Committee that could prove practically valid and relevant.
