Who would object to a ceasefire? Who would object to peace? Of course, peace is better than war. But unfortunately, in this kind of situation, you cannot just get away with slogans. You need a serious political analysis of the situation. You not only need an appeal to cease combat; you need to state…
The Permanent Representative of Georgia has said that he is surprised that in my statement I used the words “ethnic cleansing”. How else can we describe it when during the course of today a town of 70,000 inhabitants is being destroyed? What else can we call it when hospitals, schools and residentia…
Unfortunately, I must note that the statement by the Permanent Representative of Georgia at this evening’s meeting included many distortions and contradictions. On the one hand, the representative of Georgia said that the Russian Federation is controlling everything in South Ossetia, but at the same…
I am compelled to state that Georgia is continuing its treacherous attack on South Ossetia. That is occurring despite the appeal of the Russian leadership for an immediate ceasefire, an end to this fratricidal conflict and a resumption of the negotiating process. This situation has become possible a…
The Russian Federation took the initiative of calling for this emergency meeting of the Security Council because of the alarming situation in South Ossetia, which has been brought about by the blatant and aggressive actions of the Georgian armed forces against that republic, which is an internationa…
First of all, I should like to congratulate Ambassador Le Luong Minh and the delegation of Viet Nam on their successful guidance of the Security Council in July, and to wish you, Sir, equal success for the delegation of Belgium in doing your difficult job as President of the Security Council for thi…
The Russian Federation has consistently supported the efforts of the international community to resolve the situation in the Sudanese province of Darfur. The activities of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) have become an inseparable component of the Darfur peace pr…
We welcome the participation in today’s meeting of the Security Council of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, Mr. Jeremić, and thank him for his assessment of the situation regarding developments in Kosovo, which we share.
We cannot say the same of the opinions voiced by Mr…
We thank Under-Secretary-General Pascoe for his briefing on the situation regarding a Middle East settlement. We listened carefully to the statements made by the representative of Palestine and the Permanent Representative of Israel. We hope that, after he leaves New York, Ambassador Gillerman will,…
First and foremost, I would like to thank the President for his initiative to convene this debate.
It is tragic that in the twenty-first century, notwithstanding the unprecedented development of
productive capacity, the growth in labour productivity and public wealth and the flourishing of science…
We would like to thank Mr. Ian Martin, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Nepal, for his detailed briefing about the latest developments in the situation in Nepal. In recent times, the political situation in that country has undergone some important, positive changes that we welcome.…
We are pleased to welcome you, Sir, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, to the presidency of the Security Council. We are grateful to our friends and colleagues from the Vietnamese delegation for the painstaking preparation of this meetin…
I wish first of all to respond to the irresponsible and factually inaccurate statement made
by the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, who took it upon himself to interpret the Russian position with reference to a decision of the Group of Eight (G-8). I would recall something that anyon…
We welcome the participation in today’s meeting of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, Mr. Spantâ, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Mr. Qureshi. We thank Mr. Eide for his briefing on the situation in Afghanistan and for submitting the report of the Secretary-General. We…
We too are grateful to the Special Envoys of the Secretary-General and of the African Union, Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim, for their substantive briefings on ways to move the Darfur political process forward in order to ensure an effective settlement of the crisis there. The analysis provided …
We welcome the participation at today’s meeting of the Prime Minister of Djibouti and we are grateful to him for the evaluation he gave us. We have also listened carefully to the statement by the Permanent Representative of Eritrea.
The Russian Federation is seriously concerned over the serious ris…
We would like to thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his report (S/2008/354) on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). We welcome the participation in today’s meeting by President Tadić of the Republic of Serbia and are grateful for his analysis. We also listened at…
In conflict as in peacetime, sexual violence is a detestable crime that requires condemnation and strict sanctioning. We are especially concerned about situations in which that phenomenon is widespread and systematic. It is also unacceptable for violence and sexual exploitation to be committed by th…
We are pleased to welcome to the Security Council Mr. Hoshyar Zebari, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iraq. We listened attentively to his statement on Iraq’s efforts to bring about national reconciliation and economic development in his country. We are also grateful for the briefings given to the C…
The Russian Federation welcomes the Security Council’s adoption of resolution 1817 (2008)
on controlling the illicit trade in chemical precursors used for drug production in Afghanistan. We consider that this complements the Security Council’s systematic efforts to stabilize the situation in Afghan…