Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Explanation of vote by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia after the UNSC vote on the renewal of the UNITAMS mandate

Mr.President,

The Russian delegation voted in favor of renewing the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS). We proceed from the understanding that it is absolutely necessary to render assistance to Khartoum in terms of state-building and implementing peacebuilding initiatives. In this regard, it was by no means unimportant that Sudan, in its capacity as a host state, supported the UNSC-proposed vision of further work of UNITAMS. We count on fruitful cooperation between Khartoum, the UNSC, and the special political mission.

At the same time, we cannot fail to point out that during the negotiations, the authors of the draft refused to stick to a comprehensive approach to challenges in the area of development that Sudan is faced with, even though we offered various compromise solutions to that end. Instead, they shifted focus to the climate agenda.

We believe it counter-productive to single out the impact of negative consequences of the climate change and other environmental factors, and consider them in detachment from problems of socio-economic development. It cannot be denied that the wide-spread poverty, the lack of crucial infrastructure, as well as low technological capacity and scarce donor support impede the country’s development in a more evident and immediate way than the climate change. We regret that the authors chose to not reflect it in the resolution.

Thank you.