Statement by representative of the Russian Federation Evgeny Varganov on the UN GA75th session agenda item 33: «The role of diamonds in fuelling conflict»
Mr. Chairman,
The Kimberley Process is a unique intergovernmental mechanism for the peacekeeping and promoting the legal trade in diamonds, above all in favor of the people of the African Continent. It plays the key role in the rough natural diamonds turnover regulation.
Over the more than twenty years’ period of its existence, the parties of the Kimberley Process have not only agreed on minimum rules applicable to the diamonds trade, but have made a significant progress in expanding its agenda by including the issues which are crucial fordevelopment, such as responsible supply chains and business conduct, among them, observance of human rights, labor rights, combating money laundering and terrorism financing, minimizing environmental impact and protecting the environment, developing regions of presence, transparency of origin of goods.
The Chairmanship of Russian Federation in the Kimberley Process in 2020 coincided with an unprecedented global health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The restrictions due to the pandemic have affected international cooperation in almost all areas. The Kimberley Process also didn’t stand aside. We had to limit contacts, cancel the planned annual events and, effectively, stopthe process itself for almost a year. In this context, in August 2020, the participating countries adopted the Administrative Decision to postpone the Chairmanship of the Russian Federation to 2021 and Botswana to 2022.
Mr. Chairman,
Despite some kind of freeze in the Kimberley Process, the Russian Federation, as the Chairman, reaffirms the commitments to its principles and is ready to develop the cooperation within its framework. Our decision to submit the draft resolution "The Role of diamonds in fuelling conflict" for the UN General Assembly consideration on the item 33 of the agenda of its 75th session is in line with the position mentioned. The text of the resolution is, generally, of technical nature.
We would like to thank all the delegations who took part in the consultations on the text of the draft resolution for their constructive position and flexibility during the negotiations. Thanks to such position, we were able to reach the consent in spirit of cooperation and mutual support.
We also thank everyone who joined our draft resolution as co-sponsors.
We look forward to adopting the resolution today by consensus.
In conclusion, we would like to express our deep regret that a member of the Kimberley Process 2021 Chairman Secretariat, who was expected to come to New York for the draft resolution presentation, could not participate due to the failure to issue an American entry visa, despite the fact that the necessary documents had been submitted to the US Consulate in advance. We regard this as another confirmation of the abuse by the United States of its status as a UN headquarters host country and the manifestation of discriminatory measures against individual delegations.
Thank you for attention.
