Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC VTC open debate on cooperation between the UN and regional and subregional organizations (AU)
We welcome the participation of President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta in today's debate as President of the Security Council.
We appreciate the high level of representation at this meeting.
We thank Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and High Representative of the African Union for the Peace Fund Donald Kaberuka for the insights and assessments that they shared.
Mr.President,
The Russian Federation expresses its support for the central topic of today’s discussion. Indeed, the recent global challenges demand that we should reconfirm commitment to our previous obligations for maintenance of peace and security in various regions, including in Africa.
Partnership of the United Nations and the African Union remains an inspiring success story, with the UN Charter, first of all its Chapter VIII, at the core.
We welcome progress in building African peace and security architecture, where the central role is assigned to the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, Continental Early Warning System and African Standby Force.
Africans get more actively involved in resolving conflict situations on the continent, thus demonstrating the practical effectiveness of the principle “African solutions – to the African problems”. We cannot fail to mention the mediator efforts of the African Union in settling many crises that unfortunately do not cease to disturb the continent.
We welcome the African Union renewing its flagship initiative on silencing the guns in Africa until 2030. Amidst a pandemic, the UN and AU are managing to find innovative ways to interact, which deserve strong support.
We are convinced that in order to enhance UN support to the African Union in overcoming the current challenges, the interaction of the two organizations needs to expand. Fruitful cooperation of the UN Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council is especially important. We count on the two Councils to engage meaningfully with each other in the framework of joint events that are to take place in Addis Ababa in mid-December, and the preparatory committee that will convene in New York.
We believe it was appropriate that the African Union raised a question about the United Nations providing material and financial support to their efforts to maintain international peace and security. We expect Africans to elaborate a shared position regarding modalities of financing African peacekeeping operations and using the AU Peace Fund for these purposes.
Growing terrorist threat requires our increased attention. Terrorist organizations keep using the situation with the pandemic in order to strengthen their positions. We have particular concerns over the deteriorating situation in the Sahara-Sahel region. We stand ready to share our expertise in countering terrorism with our African partners, implement projects that should build capacity of African states in combating the threats of terrorism and extremism.
Apart from that, UN-AU cooperation would benefit if we solved the problem of illegal unilateral sanctions that remain imposed on some African states. These measures have kept expanding in recent years, which undermines the ability of states to respond to emerging threats and challenges, including COVID-19 pandemic. We always say that we need to review UNSC-authorized sanctions regimes in a timely manner. Those regimes must not affect the ability of states to oppose organized crime and terrorism, build effective security bodies. Nor should they aggravate the humanitarian situation.
Mr.President,
Our country intends to keep developing equitable cooperation with African partners following up on the decisions adopted at the first in history economic forum and summit “Russia-Africa” held in 2019. We look forward to continuing our meaningful engagement during the next high-level summit that is going to take place in Africa in 2022.
Thank you.
