S/PV.6800 Security Council

Under rule 37 of the provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of South Sudan to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members have before them document S/2012/514, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by the United States of America. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2012/486, which contains the report of the Secretary-General on South Sudan. It is my understanding that the Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now.

There were 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2057 (2012). I now give the floor to the representative of South Sudan.

The Republic of South Sudan expresses its gratitude to the Security Council for renewing the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). We appreciate Council members’ continued interest in, and focus on, our country in this particularly important early stage of its development. We furthermore thank Special Representative of the Secretary-General Hilde Johnson and her team for their tireless efforts in support of South Sudan. It is with sincere appreciation that we acknowledge the contribution of Members of the United Nations that have provided troops, police forces and civilian personnel to UNMISS. My Government views that as a reflection of the level of acceptance of our new republic within the community of nations, for which we are very grateful. The Government of the Republic of South Sudan reiterates that it remains fully committed to guaranteeing the safety, security and unrestricted freedom of movement of all United Nations personnel in South Sudan, as was provided during the years leading up to independence, and commits itself to further strengthening its efforts in that regard. The Republic of South Sudan has made some progress in terms of establishing national institutions and extending the authority of the Government, as expressed by the Secretary-General in his report (S/2012/486) recently. Given the historical context and the many crosscutting challenges we are experiencing, there is of course much more that still needs to be done to build our State, enhance the Government’s capacity and ensure that it can provide protection to all of its civilians. The protection of civilians is a national responsibility that we take extremely seriously, and it occupies the highest priority on the Government’s agenda. We welcome the Council’s acknowledgement of our efforts in this area over the past year, in particularly challenging circumstances. In that context, we also welcome the Council’s call on UNMISS to continue its communication and public outreach efforts to explain the Mission’s mandate to our people. To ensure that all of our civilians are protected we must not only redouble our efforts to increase security at home, but also put relations between the Sudan and South Sudan on a secure, long-term footing. As others have correctly noted, our domestic challenges are indeed linked, in one way or another, to the ongoing challenges in the bilateral relations with the Sudan. The establishment of good-neighbourly relations will be of great benefit for both States. The Republic of South Sudan strongly believes that the establishment of two viable States living side by side in peace is both desirable and achievable. We welcome the Council’s call for a coordinated approach among the United Nations Mission, country team and agencies and multilateral and bilateral donors in support of national State-building and peacebuilding strategies. We look forward to working in partnership with the United Nations, international financial institutions and bilateral donors to build our institutions, strengthen the rule of law and ensure that the human rights of all South Sudanese are fully respected in accordance with South Sudan’s own development priorities as articulated in its development plan. In situations as complex as that in which South Sudan finds itself, the challenge is always to identify priorities, coordinate the required work and apportion resources accordingly. We look forward to continuing to partner with the United Nations and other development and humanitarian partners in those important prioritization and coordination efforts. The Government of South Sudan takes note of the concern of the international community with regard to its decision to halt the production of oil, and the impact that may have in the short-term on South Sudan’s development agenda. As we have said before, that was not a decision taken lightly. In the light of clear evidence that shipments of South Sudan oil were being seized illegally and the fact that payments dating to July 2011 had been withheld, the temporary halting of production was necessary, despite the sacrifices it entailed, in order to ensure a just outcome for the people of South Sudan in the longer term. The Republic of South Sudan maintains its position that it will assist the Republic of the Sudan by contributing up to one third of the fiscal gap as calculated last year by the International Monetary Fund, to the amount of approximately $2.5 billion. I take this opportunity to reiterate to the Council our commitment to continue to negotiate the outstanding issues of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement with the Republic of the Sudan, as the resolution of all such issues is an essential prerequisite to our being able to move forward conclusively with the implementation of the development plans for our country. We look forward to continuing to discuss these issues with the members of the Council and our other partners in the coming weeks. Once again, we thank the Security Council for renewing the mandate of UNMISS and we look forward to continuing our cooperation with Special Representative of the Secretary-General Johnson and her team.

There are no more speakers inscribed on my list. The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on its agenda.