Statement by Ambassador Vitaly I. Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, during the Security Council meeting on Colombia
January 25, 2016We are pleased, Sir, to see you presiding over the Security Council today. We also welcome the participation in today’s meeting of Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar.
We note the major significance of the agreements signed in Havana on 23 September 2015 by Colombia’s President, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, and the leader of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) rebel group, Timoleón Jiménez, on the timetable for a final peace agreement, as well as the joint communiqué of 19 January agreed on by both sides, which requests international support for the peace process, including the establishment of a United Nations mission, which is what we have done in today’s unanimous resolution 2261 (2016).
We believe that the countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States will respond positively to the parties’ request that they provide the mission with unarmed observers. We commend these important agreements and the diligent and determined efforts of the representatives of the Government of Colombia and of the FARC, as well as the active contributions made to the negotiating process by the guarantor countries — Cuba and Norway — and the observer countries, Venezuela and Chile. We take special note of Cuba’s role in the process of working out mutually acceptable solutions to the complex problems facing the participants.
In Moscow we have followed the progress of the negotiations attentively and with interest, and have consistently supported bringing to a speedy conclusion the peace process aimed at ending Colombia’s half- century of internal armed conflict. We are sure that the agreements that have been reached, along with the resolution adopted today, will be important milestones on the country’s road to peace and will enable it to achieve a final settlement and implement it effectively.
