Statement by Chargé d'Affaires of the Russian Federation Dmitry Polyanskiy after UN Security Council vote on Somalia sanctions
Mm. President,
The Russian Federation had to abstain during the vote on draft resolution of the Security Council to renew sanctions with regard to Somalia. We agree that the situation in this country remains turbulent. We took active part in inventory and elaboration of provisions of Somalia’s arms embargo. We hope this, as well as other measures stipulated in the resolution will add to normalization of the situation and decrease of terrorist threat that comes from “Al-Shabaab” in the first place.
At the same time, we still have concerns with regard to some of the language of the resolution.
In particular, we believe there is no reason to incorporate language on Djibouti and Eritrea in a Security Council document that is dedicated to Somalia’s sanctions regime. We would like to remind that last year we all lifted restrictions from Eritrea. The situation in relations between Asmara and Djibouti poses no threat to international peace and security. Settlement of remaining disputes between these countries is a matter of bilateral diplomacy.
We also regret that the authors “overloaded” the document with human rights assignments. Let me stress once again: these issues fall within competence neither of the Security Council, nor of the Somalia Sanctions Committee. There is a separate body to address them – UN Human Rights Council. We call to observe the “division of labor”.
In conclusion, we are deeply concerned about the time trouble that was created deliberately when preparing the resolution. As a result, members of the Council found themselves in a complicated situation – they had to negotiate this crucial document in an emergency mode, given the fact that the text had undergone significant changes as compared to the previous year. Our delegation did its best to save the situation and keep consensus support for the document that our Somalian friends needed badly. It is a pity that our proposals were not accommodated. We expect our British colleagues to draw their conclusions thereof and avoid such situations in future.
Thank you.
