S/PV.7343 Security Council

In accordance with rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representatives of Algeria, Brazil, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Ireland, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Namibia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Slovakia, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey and Uganda to participate in this meeting. In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite Mr. Pierre Buyoya, African Union High Representative for Mali and the Sahel, to participate in this meeting. In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite Mr. Nick Westcott, Managing Director for Africa, European External Action Service of the European Union, to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2014/879, which contains a letter dated 8 December 2014 from the Permanent Representative of Chad to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary- General, transmitting a concept paper on the item under consideration. I wish to warmly welcome the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and I now give him the floor.

I thank you, Mr. President, and the Government of Chad for organizing this debate on peace operations and the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union (AU). (spoke in English) Before addressing today’s formal agenda item, I should like to say a few words about the blood-curdling attack today in Pakistan. The hearts of the world go out to the parents and families who have lost loved ones in the horrific attack on a school in Peshawar this morning, which has taken the lives of more than 130 people, the vast majority of them children. I condemn this heinous act in the strongest possible terms. No cause can justify such brutality; no grievance can excuse such horror. It is an act of horror and rank cowardice to attack defenceless children while they are learning. Schools must be safe and secure learning spaces. Getting an education is every child’s right. Going to school should not have to be an act of bravery. I extend my deepest condolences to the people and Government of Pakistan, and particularly to those touched by today’s tragedy. The United Nations will continue to support the efforts of the Pakistani authorities in their fight against terrorism and extremism. I urge the Government of Pakistan to make every effort to bring the perpetrators to justice. I shall now turn to today’s agenda item. (spoke in French) The cooperation between the African Union and the United Nations in the field of peace and security is crucial and must be systematically activated at the first signs of crisis. It is vital that we continue to strengthen our strategic partnership and that we strive more effectively together to prevent, manage and resolve conflicts. I welcome the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Ms. Zuma, for her willingness to strengthen cooperation, and I stress the important contribution that African countries make to United Nations peacekeeping operations. (spoke in English) Over the years, cooperation between the United Nations and its regional and subregional partners has intensified. The Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council are working together more closely, and there is increased support for African- led peace operations and their transition into United Nations peacekeeping operations, as we have seen in Mali and the Central African Republic. The United Nations Secretariat and the AU Commission meet regularly for the United Nations-African Union Joint Task Force on Peace and Security, mapping out joint initiatives and strategies. Through the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa, both organizations have undertaken joint planning and implementation of programmes. Our partnership must be based on a common understanding of what each organization can do in any given context, and on a realistic assessment of each other’s comparative advantages. In the Central African Republic, for example, cooperation among the African Union, the United Nations and the Economic Community of Central African States led to the signing of the cessation-of-hostilities agreement in Brazzaville in July. In Somalia, our two Organizations are working together with other partners, including the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, to support the people and the Federal Government in this critical phase of peacebuilding and State-building. We are also working closely with the African Union and with subregional organizations in the Sudan and South Sudan. In the Great Lakes region, strong cooperation among the United Nations, the African Union, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region and the Southern African Development Community has been vital to the progress that has been made under the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region. However, we need to do more. In Burkina Faso, there was close cooperation between the United Nations, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States in the immediate aftermath of the uprising that led to the departure of former President Blaise Compaoré. But that crisis also points to the need for greater emphasis on preventive action. We also need to adapt in the face of an evolving peace and security landscape. Two-thirds of peacekeeping missions are now operating in areas where there are significant threats, including well-armed groups of terrorists and extremists, transnational organized crime and the trafficking of people and drugs, serious human rights violations and impunity. In some cases, the Security Council has responded by approving robust mandates. However, peacekeeping missions are now being mandated to advance national reconciliation and dialogue in the absence of peace agreements, or even clear identification of the parties to the conflict. Peacekeeping is also becoming a more crowded field, involving diverse actors and even parallel missions. In the Central African Republic, for example, the joint efforts of the African-led International Support Mission for the Central African Republic, the French Operation Sangaris, the European Union Force and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic have contributed to a significant improvement in the security situation, especially in the capital, Bangui. I have launched a major review of peace operations as part of my efforts to address some of these challenges. The review will encompass every aspect of our peace operations, from mandates to our cooperation with key partners, including the AU, to peacebuilding and transition, the protection of civilians, accountability and the role of special political missions and the United Nations Police. We have a responsibility to ensure that all the tools we have at our disposal are ready to face current and future demands. In addition to this review, and in line with resolution 2167 (2014), I am also reviewing the modalities for hand-over from African Union to United Nations operations. And in March next year, I will submit an assessment report with recommendations on the progress of the partnerships between the United Nations and relevant regional organizations in peacekeeping operations. Whatever the outcome of these reviews, we must continue to strengthen the role of the United Nations in conflict prevention, peacemaking and peacekeeping, and ensure the effective functioning of the collective security system established by the Charter. In order to do so, we face significant challenges. First, we must build stronger political partnerships that are anchored in a clear strategic vision. Secondly, we need a clear, agreed role for the African Union and subregional organizations. It is important to increase the predictability of our cooperation and to conduct the joint assessment missions and planning exercises that are critical to enhancing joint peace operations. Thirdly, the United Nations, regional organizations and other partners must cooperate to enhance joint logistical capabilities. To provide the necessary mobility, capacity and robustness, we need creative approaches. These might include multinational cooperation schemes, pooled capacities and co-deployments. Member States with certain specialized capacities, from helicopters and intelligence to engineering expertise, can make invaluable contributions. We should also strengthen our trilateral discussions with the European Union, which, together with the AU, is an important regional partner in deploying and managing peace operations. Fourthly, financing continues to pose a major challenge to African capability. I have advocated for further resources from within Africa, but we must find creative ways to mobilize the international community. The time has come for us to take our partnership to a new level of clarity, practicality and predictability. The Council knows full well that crises in Africa are far from an African problem. They concern the entire international community, and they will be resolved only by all the parts of that community acting as one. I commend the African Union for doing more than ever before to meet those operational and political challenges. I look forward to deepening our ties as we strive to meet the yearning of the continent’s people for lasting peace.

I thank the Secretary-General for his statement. I now call on Mr. Buyoya.

On behalf of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Ms. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who cannot be here today owing to constraints beyond her control, allow me to thank the Chadian presidency of the Security Council for having convened this important meeting on the crucial issue of the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union on peace and security and its evolution. I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the appreciation of the African Union (AU) to Chad for its invaluable contribution to peace efforts throughout the continent, not least in Mali, where so many Chadian soldiers have fallen in the line of duty. I would also like in particular to express the AU’s gratitude to President Idriss Deby Itno for his personal commitment and untiring efforts to rid our continent of the scourge of conflict and violence. The initiative of convening this debate is yet another illustration of Chad’s strong commitment to the promotion of a strategic partnership between the AU and the United Nations. I wish to recognize the presence of Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon and commend his unflinching commitment to peace, security and stability on the African continent, as well as his tireless efforts in promoting the AU-United Nations partnership in the area of peace and security. Today’s debate comes at a time of growing awareness of the importance of building a strong partnership between the AU and the United Nations, with a view to enhancing our efforts to promote peace, security and stability in Africa. As this is the second meeting convened by the Security Council this year on the issue of the partnership between the United Nations and regional organizations, including the African Union, today’s meeting is also a clear indication of the sustained attention that the Security Council continues to devote to the promotion of peace and security on the continent, as well as of its commitment to build an innovative and creative partnership with the AU. The strategic relationship between the AU and the United Nations has been growing steadily, with the aim of forging a more coherent and effective partnership in the context of Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations and article 17 of the Protocol relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union. This strategic partnership has in particular enabled our two organizations to establish regular consultations on issues of common concern and interest in the area of peace and security, where cooperation is most visible. In that regard, the holding of annual joint consultations between the AU Peace and Security Council and the United Nations Security Council, as well as the coordination between the AU Commission and the United Nations Secretariat through existing institutional mechanisms such as the Joint Task Force on Peace and Security and biannual desk-to-desk meetings, are a clear illustration of the common will to encourage greater synergy between the AU and the United Nations. The new joint United Nations-AU framework for an enhanced partnership in peace and security, signed recently between the AU Commission’s Peace and Security Department and the United Nations Office to the AU, is a very good initiative that could be refined and extended across the rest of the AU Commission and the wider United Nations family. The collaborative peacemaking efforts between the AU and the United Nations have contributed to the deepening of that partnership. Many examples testify to the close complementarity that exists between the African initiatives and those of the United Nations, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic. The same applies to a number of other cross-cutting issues, ranging from mine action to disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, security-sector reform, post-conflict reconstruction and development, and efforts in the areas of counter- terrorism and the non-proliferation of weapons. Despite the progress achieved so far, the African Union is convinced of the need to further deepen its strategic relationship with the United Nations in the area of peace and security. Such an approach is made more compelling by the fact that, despite the significant progress made over the past few years, Africa still has the most conflict situations of any continent. In fact, in addition to the conventional threats to peace, security and stability, the continent continues to face a new set of threats, including intra-State conflicts, violence related to bad governance, terrorism and transnational crime, piracy on both the east and west coasts of Africa, border disputes and the effects of climate change and environmental degradation. In order to address those challenges, and in view of their proximity to and familiarity with the issues, the African Union and its regional mechanisms have shown renewed determination to provide the necessary leadership. The deployment of several peace support operations in various areas of the continent clearly illustrates the commitment of the African Union and its regional blocs to contributing, in complementarity with the United Nations, to collective security, as provided for by the Charter of the United Nations. It is in that context that the African Union has deployed, beginning in 2002, a number of peace support operations in response to conflict situations on the continent, including in Burundi, Darfur, Mali, the Central African Republic and Somalia. The stabilization efforts carried out by those missions and the sacrifices made by their personnel largely paved the way for, and facilitated the task of, the United Nations missions that eventually took over. In the case of Somalia, the African Union Mission in Somalia continues to operate in a complex and difficult environment with the aim of stabilizing the country while creating appropriate conditions for a more sustained international commitment, possibly through a classic United Nations peacekeeping operation. Concurrent with the deployment of peace support operations, the African Union is also building its long- term capacities by operationalizing the African Standby Force. The Force will enable appropriate responses to be provided to some of the gaps noted in the recent operations conducted by the African Union in relation to planning, force generation, command and control and mission support. On the basis of the recommendations of the Gambari report on the evolution of the African Standby Force and its rapid deployment capability, a number of steps have already been taken with a view to attaining full operational capability by the end of next year. In the interim, the establishment of the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises will significantly enhance both the speed of our response to emergency situations and its robustness. Clearly, the African Union and its regional mechanisms have demonstrated their determination to fully play their role and make a significant contribution to collective security efforts on the continent. In so doing, they have developed comprehensive architectures covering the entire range of security challenges facing the continent, including those related to governance deficits. However, the experience of recent years has amply shown that one of the greatest obstacles facing the African Union and its regional mechanisms is the issue of flexible, sustainable and predictable funding for their peace efforts. Therefore, it is crucial that an appropriate solution be urgently found to this question, bearing in mind that the Security Council has the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. Obviously, the African Union is encouraging its member States to increase their contributions in that regard, so that outside support, including that of the United Nations and our partners, is truly complementary to our own means and efforts. If the United Nations and the African Union are to successfully address the peace and security challenges confronting the continent, it is also critical that they achieve greater political coherence. Significant efforts must be deployed to further enhance their partnership in terms of consultations prior to decision-making, a shared understanding of the issues at hand, consistency and support to African-led peace efforts. More specifically, the African Union and the United Nations should agree on a set of principles aimed at clarifying their relationship and anchoring it on a more solid platform. From the African Union’s perspective, those principles should revolve around support for African ownership and priority setting, consultative decision-making, and a division of labour and sharing of responsibilities based on our respective comparative advantages. Furthermore, practical steps should be taken in order to enhance the effectiveness of the annual joint consultative meetings between the Security Council and the African Union’s Peace and Security Council. The interactions between their respective presidents must be held on a regular basis, and joint field missions should be undertaken. It is equally important for the Security Council to give due consideration to our legitimate requests and to address in a more systematic manner the funding of peace support operations undertaken with the consent of the United Nations. For their part, the African Union Commission and the United Nations Secretariat should continue to work towards greater cooperation and coordination. We look forward to the outcome of the review of the United Nations peacekeeping operations to be undertaken by the High-level Panel recently appointed by the Secretary-General, under the very able leadership of former President José Ramos-Horta. This review provides an opportunity to further our common objective of building an innovative and forward-looking partnership within the context of Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. Allow me to conclude by expressing our hope that this meeting of the Security Council will mark a new step in the enhancement of the partnership between the African Union and the United Nations. The challenging and increasingly complex situations on the ground require concerted responses by our two organizations and a stronger and deeper partnership, based on a innovative reading of the provisions of Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations in order to allow the African Union and its regional mechanisms to fully play their roles as integral components of the global collective security system.

I thank Mr. Buyoya for his briefing. The Council has before it the text of a statement by the President on behalf of the Council on the subject of today’s meeting. I thank the Council members for their valuable contributions to this statement. In accordance with the understanding reached among the members of the Council, I shall take it that the members of the Security Council agree to the statement, which will be issued as a document of the Security Council under the symbol S/PRST/2014/27.

I shall now make a statement in my capacity as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and African Integration of Chad. At the outset, I would like to add my voice to that of the Secretary-General in expressing my condolences to the people and Government of Pakistan, who once again have fallen victims to terrorist barbarism. I would like to thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Mr. Pierre Buyoya, High Representative of the African Union for Mali and the Sahel, for their statements. The Charter of the United Nations confers upon the Security Council the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. The Charter also envisages, in Chapter VIII, partnerships with regional and subregional organizations for the maintenance of international peace and security. The partnership between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) has often been discussed in Security Council debates. It is still relevant — I would even say strategic. How could it be otherwise between the Security Council, which is responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security, and Africa, which unfortunately is the stage for most conflicts and where many United Nations peacekeeping missions are deployed? Chad commends the progress made in the partnerships between the two institutions. We believe that the two organizations are complementary and pursue the same goals with regard to issues of peace and security. By way of illustration, I would cite certain axes of the focus of the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union concerning peacekeeping operations. At the institutional level, we note the cooperation on various aspects of the African Peace and Security Architecture, and specifically the early warning system, preventive diplomacy, mediation, electoral assistance, the maintenance of peace and addressing issues of post-conflict reconstruction. We would like to strengthen this cooperation in particular by improving exchanges of information and joint assessments. We encourage the Joint Task Force on Peace and Security of the African Union and the United Nations to step up its efforts in order to establish a common understanding of the causes and motives of conflict in Africa and to promote a joint approach to resolving them. We also encourage the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council to consider ways to strengthen their partnership in the areas of conflict prevention, settlement and management and peacekeeping operations. We propose that they venture to work together towards an armed conflict-free Africa by 2020, in accordance with the solemn declaration made on the occasion of the AU’s fiftieth anniversary. In the same vein, we urge both Councils to resolve the conflicts in Libya, northern Mali, Darfur, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia as a matter of priority. Given those conflicts, it is important that we meet together the new waves of challenges, which are terrorism, extreme violence and organized transnational crime, in particular in West and Central Africa, the Sahel, the Maghreb and the Horn of Africa. In this regard, the United Nations must consider the possibility of instituting a five-year plan to support efforts aimed at achieving those objectives. In addition, it is important to support the Panel of the Wise of the African Union and to strengthen cooperation for the good offices among the envoys of the two organizations. In addition, as the ten-year programme to strengthen the AU’s capacities is set to end in 2016, the United Nations and the AU should accelerate the work carried out in the Joint Task Force that was established at the fifteenth meeting of the Regional Coordination Mechanism for Africa in order to design a successor programme that could take on the African Union’s Agenda 2063. With regard to transitions, we welcome the support provided by the United Nations, and in particular its African Union offices for the African-led International Support Mission for the Central African Republic (MISCA) and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). We urge the offices to continue to support the planning and management of the onset, deployment and operation of African Union missions and to make communication between the two organizations more effective in preparation for the possible transfer of responsibilities to the United Nations. We are anxiously waiting to see what lessons may be learned from the transition of the two African Union operations to United Nations peacekeeping missions and the specific recommendations that could provided to inform future transitions. We should keep in mind that the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur in the Sudan, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), MISCA and MINUSCA were first initiated by African regional economic communities and the African Union. The Security Council intervened later to take up the baton. Besides this, these organizations’ approach to imposing peace, unlike classic peacekeeping, seems to be bearing fruit on the continent. We all remember the prowess of the Rapid Intervention Brigade of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and AMISOM’s success in Somalia against Al-Shabaab. We should also consider ways and means for bringing peace, since we are beginning to realize that there is less and less peace to keep. The partnership between the two organizations should therefore also be looking at information from the various operations being conducted in Africa and adapting to the changing situation. Concerning the financing of operations undertaken under United Nations mandate, concrete measures designed to make their arrangements more predictable, lasting and flexible have been proposed by the African Union-United Nations Panel of Experts led by Mr. Romano Prodi. The fact is that the two financing mechanisms are based on voluntary contributions, used for financing capacity-building, and obligatory contributions levied by the United Nations for financing Security Council peacekeeping operations. We deplore the Council’s refusal to take the slightest step forward in how this is implemented, as demonstrated by the positions taken by some delegations during the negotiations for resolution 2167 (2014), introduced by Rwanda, and the presidential statement we have just adopted (S/PRST/2014/27). It appears that the Security Council prefers staying with the status quo to moving forward. That, in our view, is regrettable. Regarding deployment when a crisis occurs, we commend the AU Peace and Security Council for its efforts to operationalize the African Standby Force and its capacity for rapid deployment. We hope the AMANI Africa II military exercises scheduled for 2015 will enable it to prove its effective operationalization. Africa must make good as soon as possible on the commitment made at the AU Malabo summit of 26 and 27 June by ensuring that the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC) is operational. ACIRC’s purpose is to provide the continent with a speedy military capacity for intervention in conflict situations as a short-term measure, creating the conditions for a broader deployment of AU and/or United Nations peacekeeping operations, while waiting for the African Standby Force to become operational. ACIRC is a significant step towards enabling Africa to take on the task of providing its own security. It is based on the willingness of Africa’s leaders to produce their own rapid response to crises on the continent. As we speak, a forum is being held in Dakar on security in Africa at which African leaders are considering ways and means of activating mechanisms such as ACIRC that can enable them to deal with multiple challenges. That willingness has been demonstrated in the wake of the crisis in Mali. At that time, owing to Africa’s inability to intervene to fight the drug traffickers, terrorists and other jihadists who were heading for the southern part of the country, non-African forces had to intervene, despite the fact that it is up to Africans to take on full responsibility for their security. It will be important to know how the United Nations and its partners can support that initiative in order to speed up deployment of our forces during crises on the continent. We welcome the significant role of the European Union and the United States of America in their efforts to support African Union operations, as well as the China-African Union Strategic Dialogue for Peace and Security in Africa. In conclusion, we would like to express our gratitude to the United Nations, which has spared no effort to help grow the African Union’s capacity. We also thank the African Union for its contributions to the maintenance of peace and security, particularly in Somalia, the Sudan, Mali and the Central African Republic, and in the fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army. We urge the United Nations and the AU to take measures inspired within the framework of the declaration of 2014-2024 as the Madiba Nelson Mandela Decade of Reconciliation in Africa, in order to put an end to conflicts on the continent. It is in the international community’s interests to cooperate with Africa and participate in its rebirth. I now resume my functions as President of the Security Council. I give the floor to the members of the Council.

On behalf of my delegation, I would like to warmly welcome you to New York, Mr. President. It is a pleasure to see you again only a few days after our meeting in Nigeria. I would also like to welcome His Excellency the former President Pierre Buyoya and thank him for his comments on behalf of the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission. The Secretary-General is of course always welcome in our midst, and it was a pleasure to hear his perspective on the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union. I would like to thank the delegation of Chad for organizing this important debate and for the excellent concept note (S/2014/879, annex) it has provided to guide our deliberations. We have listened carefully to our briefers and drawn some lessons from their comments. In November 2013, the Secretary-General and the President of the World Bank Group made a tour of the Sahel region and visited some countries, including Chad, where they met with President Idriss Deby Itno. The nexus between peace and security and development was extensively discussed. Central to that was an appreciation of the critical significance of the partnership between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations. Today’s debate is therefore a continuation of that discussion held in N’Djamena, and we believe it is crucial for us to deliberate on it today. The concept note highlights four important challenges to the efforts of both the African Union and the United Nations to deliver effectively on their cooperative peacekeeping tasks. They are, first, improving institutional collaboration between the United Nations Security Council and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union; secondly, planning for and managing mission transitions; thirdly, enhancing the prospects for rapid deployment and fourthly, financing AU peace operations. Concerning the challenge of improving institutional collaboration between the United Nations and the AU, we believe that moving from context-specific to more practicable mechanisms for peacekeeping will enhance their cooperation. The inherent difficulty in this is the perennial problem of how to operationalize the spirit of Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, designed in a different era of global regional security collaboration. The ongoing conflicts in the African region make the case for a strategic partnership between the United Nations and the AU, in line with the principles of Chapter VIII of the Charter. Indeed the challenge of achieving more balanced institutional collaboration and a more effective United Nations-AU strategic peackeeping partnership occurs not only at the organizational level between both institutions but also, more essentially, at the political level. In terms of operational challenges in the management of mission transitions and rapid deployment, we believe that more could be done to enhance United Nations- AU capacity-building programmes, joint assessment missions and planning exercises to aid the effective performance of the AU peacekeeping capabilities. In that regard, it would be appropriate for the High- level Panel to Review Peacekeeping Operations to consult closely with the African Union and to provide recommendations to further strengthen United Nations- AU cooperation in addressing operational challenges in AU peacekeeping efforts. It is essential that coordinated efforts be undertaken with the African Union Commission to develop its military, police, civilian, technical, logistic and administrative capabilities. A cursory overview of United Nations peacekeeping operations since 1948 indicates that 32 of the 69 peacekeeping operations undertaken by the United Nations have been in Africa. This situation has led the AU to undertake major steps to enhance its peacekeeping efforts on the continent, including the establishment of an African Stand-by Force. A major challenge in those efforts has been financial resources. That is highlighted in resolution 1809 (2008), which calls for enhanced predictability, sustainability and flexibility of financing for regional organizations when they undertake peacekeeping under United Nations mandates. The Prodi and Obasanjo Panels both examined alternative financial sources for the AU’s peace operations in keeping with resolution 1809 (2008), which accents the responsibility of regional organizations to secure financial resources, including through soliciting contributions from donors to fund their operations. So far, neither of the recommendations of the two Panels has produced major results. In its efforts to meet its financial challenges in the context of peacekeeping missions, the AU has sought authorization for the use of United Nations-assessed contributions for AU peace operations. That is in line with the Prodi report (see S/2008/813), which also recommends the establishment of a multi-donor trust fund for the purpose of supporting African Union peacekeeping capacity. Effecting those recommendations, including enhancing the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of the financial resources of the African Union when it undertakes peacekeeping activities under Security Council mandates, will, we believe, avail the AU of predictable funding to meet its peacekeeping efforts. In terms of collaboration and coordination, Nigeria supports the current level of deepened interrelation between the United Nations Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council through the holding of annual joint consultations between Addis Ababa and New York. We also see merit in the close collaboration between the AU Commission and the United Nations Secretariat, as well as the institutional mechanisms put in place, such as the Joint Task Force and the desk-to-desk collaboration. Those mechanisms help to bring together the senior leadership and focal points in both organizations to discuss issues of mutual interest. More attention should also be paid to information management in order to improve synergy in the implementation of mandates. Evidence of the ongoing cooperation between the United Nations and the AU can be seen in several peacekeeping operations across Africa, notably the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, the African Union Mission in Somalia, the United Nations Support Office for the African Union Mission in Somalia and the operations in South Sudan, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and, most recently, in the Central African Republic. Finally, as the United Nations-AU peacekeeping partnership continues to evolve, we see a need for the current collaboration between the two institutions to be intensified in order to consolidate the gains already achieved. Constructive interaction among members of the United Nations Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council on substantive issues in peacekeeping remains relevant to creating a cost-effective and mutually beneficial United Nations-AU peacekeeping partnership. A strategic framework embodying a common vision for such cooperation — a lot of which you, Mr. President, outlined in your statement — and your road map for its implementation can suitably guide that interaction. Sir Mark Lyall Grant (United Kingdom): I thank you, Mr. President, for convening this important debate and for attending it in person today. This is a valuable opportunity to take stock again of one of the most important institutional relationships of the United Nations, namely, its partnership with the African Union (AU). I also thank the Secretary-General and President Buyoya for their contributions this morning. Let me start by underlining the United Kingdom’s horror at the Taliban’s cowardly attack on a school in Peshawar, which killed so many children. Our deepest condolences go to the families and loved ones of those killed or injured and to the people and the Government of Pakistan. There have been many shared successes of the United Nations-AU relationship this year. I would like to highlight four in particular. First, we have seen close and professional collaboration between the African Union and United Nations teams in planning for the transition from an AU to a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic. The AU mission stabilized the security situation, allowing for a smooth handover to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in September. That process worked significantly better than the similar transition in Mali last year, reflecting a gradually improving partnership between the two organizations. Secondly, United Nations-AU cooperation has led to tangible results on the ground in Somalia this year. The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), an African Union mission with United Nations and European Union logistical and financial support, has reflected some of the best of African peace operations: a robust mandate courageously delivered, with real success in driving back Al-Shabaab. Our shared challenge now is to extend and preserve those gains. In that context, we look forward to the joint United Nations-AU review of AMISOM next year. Thirdly, we have seen the positive impact of mutually reinforcing political engagement by the United Nations and the AU and its subregional organizations. The United Nations, the AU and the Economic Community of West African States worked in lockstep in response to the political crisis in Burkina Faso in November. The joint visit by envoys from the three organizations at a pivotal moment showed united support for the transition and prevented a slide into further instability. Fourthly, we welcome the AU’s collaboration with the World Health Organization in deploying health- care workers to West Africa to tackle the Ebola virus. It is clear that the United Nations-AU partnership is at its most effective when we have a shared vision and shared goals, when we build on the lessons learned from the past, when the two organizations work closely together in assessments, planning and operational delivery, and when both bring the appropriate capabilities and expertise to the task. I would like to pay tribute to the work of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the African Union, Mr. Haile Menkerios, and to the expanded United Nations Office to the AU. Its members are now working closely with the AU Commission right across the conflict cycle, from early warning and conflict prevention or mediation — the importance of which you highlighted this morning, Mr. President — to deploying and sustaining missions and to post-conflict reconstruction and development. That work can lead to an even more effective and joined-up approach to situations of developing instability. Looking ahead to 2015, there will be major challenges for the United Nations and the African Union to surmount together. First is the growth of asymmetric threats, non-State actors and increasing collaboration between extremist terrorist groups, which demands a united response from us all. Both the United Nations and the AU are stepping up activity to counter those threats. We welcome, among other things, the African Union’s strong stance against kidnap for ransom, and the Nouakchott Process which brings together the security and intelligence chiefs in the Sahara and the Sahel. Secondly, there are opportunities in the months ahead to enhance further the joint United Nations-AU partnerships. We look forward to the United Nations review of the African Union/United Nations Hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID), in collaboration with the African Union. UNAMID is the only hybrid AU-United Nations peacekeeping operation, and it is not working as it should. Important decisions on UNAMID’s future lie ahead. Thirdly, 2015 will see several important elections in African countries. We welcome the African Union’s long- and short-term monitoring missions, which help to promote sound elections that are carried out in accordance with African countries’ constitutions and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. The African Union must not waver in its commitment to those standards. Finally, we need to continue to work together to surmount the continued obstacles to effective African Union peace operations, including financing and the capabilities of troop-contributing countries. African Union missions need access to adequate, timely and predictable financing for peace support operations. The United Kingdom is pleased that other partners, including the European Union, have stepped in with support where needed. But in the long term, and as the presidential statement adopted today reiterates — and as President Buyoya himself has highlighted — regional bodies have to assume their own responsibility to secure human, financial, logistical and other resources for their organizations (S/PRST/2014/27). We urge the African Union to act on that in allocating more African resources for African peace support operations. Turning to the capabilities of troop-contributing countries (TCCs) , the African Union and the United Nations share the goal of well-led, well-trained and effective missions working flexibly to implement clear mandates. We need to keep pushing collectively towards the achievement of that goal, addressing shortfalls in TCC training and equipment wherever necessary. We hope that the Secretary-General’s peace operations review will look at all these issues and provide recommendations for how best to address them. In the meantime, we can all look back with some satisfaction on a year that has seen the United Nations-African Union relationship become closer, more experienced, more operational and more vibrant. We may not always agree, but we understand each other ever better and remain firmly committed to our shared goal of an end to all wars and conflict in Africa.

I thank you, Mr. President, for organizing today’s debate, for your own presence and for the contribution of Chad to peacekeeping. I know we all share both shock and repugnance at the terrible murders in Pakistan, and the empathy of all Australians is naturally with the people of Pakistan. I thank the Secretary-General and High Representative Buyoya for their briefings and their efforts to strengthen the essential partnership between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) on peace and security. We stand at a critical juncture for peace operations globally. The landscape has changed profoundly from just a decade ago, with a record number of troops and police deployed, mostly in Africa, with more robust mandates, and with new and evolving threats, including terrorism and asymmetric conflict. Peace operations are under unprecedented strain, a reality recognized by the Secretary-General when he commissioned his high- level strategic review of peace operations. It is clear today that the United Nations and AU need each other more than ever. Time and again the AU is stepping up, not only to keep peace on the continent, but to enforce it. In Somalia, troops of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali troops have made impressive gains in liberating territory from Al-Qaida- affiliate Al-Shabaab. In Mali and the Central African Republic, AU deployments have been vital to the restoration of stability and formed the core of United Nations missions that followed. Such African leadership makes sense. The AU has demonstrated repeatedly its unique comparative advantages and strengths: knowledge of context, ability to deploy quickly and, critically, willingness to act robustly. But these situations have broader implications and are the responsibility of all of us — of the whole international community. We should ensure that the AU has the support it needs when putting African lives on the line to restore stability and protect civilians in places no one else can or will. I will focus on the four challenges defined in the concept note (S/2014/879, annex). The first is financing, which is a chronic challenge that we have not yet resolved. We need to look for innovative solutions that enhance the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of financing for the AU missions authorized by the Council. The AMISOM model — where the United Nations provided a logistical support package funded from assessed contributions — has worked well, but there is strong resistance within the Council to repeating it. So we need to be creative in seeking solutions, but to respond to an obvious need. In the Central African Republic, we employed an innovative model of authorizing United Nations support to the AU mission in the lead- up to transition. A dedicated United Nations support team was deployed. This model should be replicated. United Nations trust funds for AU operations failed in Mali and the Central African Republic. But rather than dismissing that option, we need to look hard at why they failed. Would a standing trust fund, with clear, pre-established processes for quick disbursement, iron out problems? Direct bilateral support will always be vital, particularly with airlift, equipment and training. But such assistance will not provide the required certainty, uniformity and coordination of support. The long-term solution lies in the AU enhancing its own ability to fund its own operations. It has demonstrated its capacity for innovation in raising funds to fight Ebola through private-sector contributions and a text messaging, or SMS, campaign. My second point addresses managing the transition of missions from the AU to the United Nations. We are getting better at this, with a much smoother transition in the Central African Republic than in Mali. We consulted better on the mandate. Operational planning and coordination on the ground was better. But grace periods to bring personnel up to United Nations standards were not met. And there have been mixed results on deploying assets. The coordinated lessons learned exercise on transitions in those two cases will be an important resource. More generally, we need more United Nations-AU joint assessments and field visits. My third point addresses facilitating rapid deployment. Speed of deployment is vital to protecting civilians, stopping human rights violations and halting descent into chaos. Days lost can be lives lost. Yet no one has got this right, as we see in the United Nations struggle to reach authorized strengths in South Sudan and Mali. The AU has shown that, working with the subregions, it can get personnel on the ground quickly. But they need the kit to do their job and better command and control. We note the potential of the African Standby Force rapid deployment capacity, which we must support, and the interim African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises. My fourth point concerns enhancing institutional collaboration. We very much agree with High Representative Buyoya’s comment this morning that we need to anchor United Nations-AU engagement much more strongly. It should be deepened at all levels: strategic, operational and tactical. Nowhere is this more important than between the executive bodies — the two Councils — that mandate peace operations. We need to be much more vigilant in following up the outcomes of our annual joint consultative meetings. And we need to do more ad hoc interaction. As Council President last month, I held an extensive discussion with my Peace and Security Council counterpart on our respective programmes of work before we took up our roles as President or Chair, so that both of us had a sense of how we saw the agenda we share and how to respond to it. The relationship between the United Nations and the AU goes far beyond questions of resourcing. Exchange on such issues as the protection of civilians and human rights, in which the United Nations has built up experience over decades, is vital. We need to deepen intervention on conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding. Today’s presidential statement (S/PRST/2014/27) calls for greater United Nations- AU cooperation on policing, which is an area that is too often overlooked. Police peacekeepers play a key role in building capacity in the rule of law, which is essential for the transition out of peace operations. The adoption of resolution 2185 (2014) during Australia’s presidency last month highlighted the policing role. The establishment of a formal AU counterpart to the United Nations Police Adviser would facilitate greater engagement, including in guidance and training. We are confident that the Secretary-General’s current High-level Review Panel on Peacekeeping Operations will look creatively, and with fresh eyes, at the challenges being discussed today. The Panel should engage closely with the AU and subregions and make bold recommendations to strengthen the United Nations-AU partnership on peace operations, which is so decisive for peace and security in Africa.

First and foremost, on behalf of my country I would like to express our deepest condolences to the people and the Government of Pakistan for the barbaric terrorist attack that occurred today. I would like to thank His Excellency Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Minister for Foreign Affairs and African Integration of Chad and President of the Security Council, for organizing this important debate to further the efforts of the United Nations and the African Union (AU) to forge stronger ties as partners in peacekeeping. Your presence here today, Sir, demonstrates the importance that Chad attaches to the furtherance of partnership between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations. Such partnership builds the possibilities for a prosperous and peaceful tomorrow, particularly on the African continent. I also thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his statement and for his concrete action over the years to promote United Nations-AU partnerships in peace operations, and President Pierre Buyoya, the AU High Representative for Mali and the Sahel, for his briefing. As Rwanda’s tenure on the Council comes to an end, we are happy to contribute once again to this issue of great importance to us. Just this past July, during Rwanda’s presidency, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2167 (2014), which calls for strengthening regional partnerships in peacekeeping and stresses the need to enhance the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of financing for regional organizations when they undertake peacekeeping under a Security Council mandate. It also requested the Secretary-General to initiate, in cooperation with the AU, a lessons learned exercise on the transition from AU to United Nations peacekeeping operations in Mali and the Central African Republic and to present specific recommendations for future transitional arrangements by the end of the year. The presidential statement adopted today (S/PRST/2014/27) at the initiative of Chad serves to reinforce resolution 2167 (2014) and other previous actions by the Security Council. It is an articulate expression of the Council’s resolve to strengthen coordination and capitalize on the comparative advantages of two great organizations. The challenge we face today is to instil a positive will for partnerships of this kind so that they move from ad hoc status to a more structured framework. Over the past decade, African countries, with the support of international partners, have engaged in a collective effort to develop regional capacities for peace support operations, as per the creation of the AU Peace and Security Council and the African Standby Force (ASF). As a result of those efforts and of bilateral support to Member States, there has been a steady improvement in African capacities to respond to crisis situations through the deployment of increasingly larger and complex peace support operations. In that regard, Rwanda welcomes the establishment of the first regional brigade of the African Standby Force, composed of 10 member States with a strength of 5,200 troops ready to be deployed. Nevertheless, while much has been achieved through those and other partnerships, there is still room for improvement. The fact remains that the AU has often struggled when it comes to operational capacity, which highlights the importance of matching resources to mandates. Mandated missions must have adequate funds and other necessary resources, including troops that are appropriately prepared. We have learned the hard way that rapid regional engagement and response mechanisms are essential in a world where political will and defence budgets are both declining. There is an obvious need for rapid responses to violent conflicts, which are often unpredictable, and partnerships with regional organizations in Africa and elsewhere are fundamental in that regard. In accordance with resolution 2167 (2014), we commend the ongoing lessons learned exercise that is being conducted by the Secretariat and look forward to concrete recommendations. Financing is another very important issue, and we hope to see substantial recommendations on predictable financing of AU operations from the High-level Review Panel. Furthermore, as outlined in the presidential statement just adopted, Rwanda supports the initiative to secure more financial resources from within the African continent. I will conclude by noting that today is another day and another step towards a better future through better structuring and better elaborating on the needs of African States and sharing the needs among those States, regional and subregional organizations and partners, including the AU, the European Union and the United Nations. Today’s presidential statement and our constructive debate demonstrate the resolve of the international community to establish more-predictable frameworks and working relationships when it comes to integrated peacekeeping operations.

First of all, we would like to add our voice to the condolences expressed here concerning the horrific terrorist attack in Pakistan. We welcome you, Mr. Minister, as the President of the Security Council. We listened attentively to the briefings. We would like to thank the Secretary- General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and the African Union High Representative for Mali and the Sahel, Mr. Buyoya, for their interesting briefings. We wish to thank the delegation of Chad for its initiative in convening this meeting on the important topic of enhancing the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) in the area of peacekeeping, on the basis of Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter. That cooperation is based on the principle of the primary responsibility of the Security Council for maintaining international peace and security, as well as on the complementarity of the efforts of the United Nations and regional organizations, which seeks to maximize their respective comparative advantages. It is an obvious, indisputable fact that regional and subregional organizations operating in Africa have better knowledge of the situations and that their mechanisms are better suited to local conditions for the prevention and settlement of conflicts on the continent. Despite the overall decline in the intensity and number of conflicts in the last decade, Africa remains vulnerable to all sorts of crises. With regard to crisis response, the potential of our constructive cooperation is especially needed. In that connection, I would like to note the joint efforts of the two organizations to stabilize the situations in Darfur, Somalia, Mali and the Central African Republic and on the inter-Sudanese track. It is equally important to develop coordination of actions in relation to the conflict in South Sudan. We welcome the progress in the establishment of the African Peace and Security Architecture, with the assistance of the international community. The central role in those efforts belongs to the Peace and Security Council and the continental early-warning system, and to the African Standby Force and the African Capacity for Immediate Crisis Response, which are being developed. The ongoing development of cooperation in peacekeeping among the United Nations and the African Union, the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council, as well as between the United Nations Secretariat and the African Union Commission, can provide great assistance. We welcome the most active participation of African partners in peacekeeping operations in Africa under the aegis of the United Nations and the African Union, and we have consistently favoured the peacekeeping activities of the African Union under United Nations mandates, fully supported by the authority of the Security Council. Moreover, it is important to increase the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of financing, including through the African Peace Fund. At the same time, we consider it necessary to ensure mandatory feedback. That concerns, in particular, adequate periodic reporting by African partners to the Security Council on the operation of peacekeeping operations mandated by the Council. We are firmly convinced that further strengthening the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union will make possible the effective resolution of the problems of peace and security in Africa and will be able to significantly increase global anti-crisis capacity. As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia makes a significant contribution to the development of the international community’s strategy and practical measures on issues of strengthening peace and security in Africa. Russia participates in many United Nations peacekeeping operations on the continent. Our country is one of the leading suppliers of goods and services for those operations, primarily in the sphere of civil aviation. We provide consistent political support to the relevant efforts of the African community. We will continue to assist in strengthening the African Governments’ own anti-crisis potential, including through training African peacekeepers and representatives of law enforcement agencies of African countries in Russian educational institutions.

I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for convening this meeting on a topic to which Argentina attaches great importance, that is, the partnership between the United Nations and regional organizations in the maintenance of international peace and security. Your presence and participation here today, Mr. Minister, shows how relevant and how substantive this debate is. I would also like to acknowledge the enormous work and the quality of the work done by your delegation at the United Nations and as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, under the leadership of Ambassador Cherif. I would also like to thank the Secretary-General for his statement and for presenting his biennial report on cooperation between the United Nations and regional and other organizations, as well as for his recommendations on the means to strengthen that cooperation. We would also like to thank in particular the High Representative of the African Union for Mali and the Sahel, His Excellency Mr. Pierre Buyoya, for his statement. We all know that the Charter of the United Nations encourages the Security Council to use regional agreements in carrying out its primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security. The future of United Nations field operations is inextricably linked to the process of regionalization of peacekeeping operations. Argentina therefore acknowledges the important contribution of the African Union and of other relevant organizations and regional and subregional arrangements in the maintenance of international peace and security. I note that in our first Security Council presidency, Argentina proposed the issue of the role that we have with regard to regional and subregional organizations to contribute to international peace and security. We focused specifically on the promotion of peace under Chapter VI of the Charter. I think the topic of this debate is a common concern and responsibility. In recent years we have seen how new agreements and subregional organizations are playing a fundamental role in both the prevention of conflict and the establishment and promotion of peace. These are undoubtedly examples of the contributions of agreements and organizations that have developed new capabilities to act in the field of international peace and security, as we have seen in various peacekeeping operations in the Economic Community of West African States, the Economic Community of Central African States and the Southern African Development Community. It is true that the contribution of regional organizations complements the work of the United Nations by incorporating knowledge of the specific context, including elements that are important to know, to understand and to take on in resolving the deep-rooted causes of conflicts. Moreover, it is those regional organizations that have a special social and political interest in the situations, such as geographic proximity and the confidence that local actors generate. Those attributes have been recognized as being extremely valuable and positive, and they are comparative advantages of great value. The United Nations, for its part, provides its universal composition and its legitimacy, along with its operational capacity and experience. However, it is necessary to acknowledge that this decentralization tendency is also a consequence of the need to overcome the structural or operational shortcomings of the system of collective security through the use of regional organizations. The Council has the role of authorizing the deployment of different types of field operations and of establishing an operation’s mandate and conditions of deployment. That means that the peacekeeping operations led by regional organizations are adapted to the mandates and goals of the United Nations. But it also means that the Security Council must be capable of listening to what regional organizations are saying, because we have just said that those regional actors have greater knowledge, a specific interest and a relationship of trust that we have to respect and uphold. However, I would like to point that this tendency towards decentralization to regional and subregional organizations cannot be a recourse that is thought of in terms of a lesser responsibility for the Security Council. It is not a delegation of responsibility by the Security Council, but rather a strategy of cooperation, trust and joint leadership. Nor can it be a cheaper solution for peacekeeping operations. It is a matter of a cooperation that is not thought of as a dispersal of resources, but rather of proper financing, the necessary capabilities and the crucial element of cooperation and complementarity. Furthermore, in our view, it is essential for United Nations mandates and objectives to be implemented with respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and national unity, and in keeping with the provisions of international humanitarian law, human rights law and refugee law. Likewise, regional organizations have an obligation to keep the Security Council apprised of their activities not only in order to promote due accountability but also because this serves as an early- warning mechanism allowing for corrections to be made during the deployment and implementation of a peacekeeping operation, thereby strengthening that which works. Relations between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations must be based, therefore, on established objectives and joint strategies that provide for, as has been said, genuine cooperation. The political, operational and financial conditions must also be established so that regional organizations and agreements can take on their responsibilities for the maintenance of peace and security. That includes the provision of specialized technical assistance by the United Nations in the planning and deployment of regional operations as well as in the application of concepts of operations with a view to strengthening its administrative and command and control structures, improving information and communications technology infrastructure and providing capacity-building where necessary. The establishment of appropriate coordination mechanisms between the United Nations and regional organizations is also necessary. Finally, financing mechanisms that provide sufficient predictability and sustainability should be established. Argentina underscores the need for the three basic principles that continue to characterize United Nations peacekeeping operations — the consent of the parties, impartiality and the non-use of force except for legitimate self-defence or to fulfil the mission mandate — to be strictly respected in the process of outsourcing. At the same time, we believe there is a need to underscore that the role and responsibilities of the United Nations and the Security Council with regard to those operations led by regional organizations that involve establishing peace have not yet been fully defined, including in terms of financing, which is among the points included in the concept note provided by the presidency (S/2014/879, annex). This is a sensitive discussion, which must take place in both the Council and the General Assembly, and which must encompass not only the operational, logistical and financial dimensions but also, as a priority, the ethical and political ones. It is unacceptable to continue indefinitely postponing such a debate and, at the same time, blurring the lines between the various types of operations on the ground, which seems now to have become a repeated and prevalent occurrence. However, such confusion runs the risk, on the one hand, of abandoning the principles of impartiality and the non-use of force that have always guided the work of the Organization to date, and which must continue to do so, and, on the other hand, of failing to clearly and fairly assign responsibilities to the various stakeholders involved in the maintenance of international peace and security. In conclusion, all Members of the Organization — in particular the permanent members of the Council, while they retain that status — must assume their responsibilities for maintaining international peace and security, and engage in this debate ensuring that, among other things, any support provided by the United Nations fully comply with the policy of due human rights diligence in the context of United Nations support to security forces outside of the Organization, and the particular responsibility borne by the permanent members of the Security Council for maintaining international peace and security be met effectively. I would like to express Argentina’s disgust and our solidarity with the people and the Government of Pakistan. That horror goes hand in hand with the commitment we must all make to bring to an end all forms of extremism and terrorism that are spawning cruel forms of violence and putting all of us at risk. In situations of risk and weakness, our system must respond not with further militarization but with integrated missions that incorporate the promotion of equality, sustainable human development and the independence of States to determine their own futures in the face of all of these challenges. The existence of such violence extremism and terrorism calls for strengthening the role of regional organizations with full respect for the principles of the Organization we share, the United Nations.

At the outset, I would like to align myself with previous speakers in extending my condolences to the victims of the horrible attack in Pakistan. To the people and the Government of Pakistan, we emphasize the need for solidarity between the international community and Pakistan in confronting this horrible crime and bringing those who planned and carried it out to justice. I also thank you, Mr. President, for holding this important debate. I welcome you to New York, Sir. I also express my deep gratitude to the Secretary- General, His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and to the African Union High Representative for Mali and the Sahel, His Excellency Mr. Pierre Buyoya, and I thank them for their briefings. The multiplicity of challenges and conflicts confronting our world today and additional burdens carried by United Nations peacekeeping activities confirm the need to put in place updated and comprehensive strategies and to seek innovative solutions and methods to deal effectively with these challenges. That means giving a greater role to regional and subregional organizations and consulting with them when it comes to defining the mandates of peacekeeping operations, on the one hand, and to improving the mechanisms for dealing with emerging conflicts in those regions, on the other hand. Jordan welcomes the strengthening of effective strategic partnerships between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations in the field of peacekeeping, especially with organizations in regions where there are conflicts, such as the African Union, the European Unio, the League of Arab States and other organizations. We also encourage taking advantage of the geographic, political and cultural advantages of these organizations in order to enhance the effectiveness of the implementation of peacekeeping mandates and in dealing with conflicts. Such organizations have a particular ability to understand the root causes and peculiarities of conflict, which allows them to participate effectively in conflict resolution, whether through political efforts or in the protection of civilians. Jordan welcomes the role of the African Union in peacekeeping and peacebuilding, especially through joint mechanisms with the United Nations such as the close collaboration between the Peace and Security Department of the African Union Commission and the United Nations Office to the African Union. We also appreciate the African Union’s role in ensuring a smooth transition of tasks from the African Union to United Nations forces on behalf of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic and the United Nations Operation in Somalia. Cooperation with that important regional organization is particularly critical, considering the multiple challenges confronting the African continent and the many States suffering due to long-term challenges and conflicts. We therefore reaffirm the need to support the African Union and provide the necessary expertise and resources to maintain its capacities in managing conflicts and maintaining international peace and security, especially in Africa, in order to achieve its desired call to spread peace throughout the African continent. The synergy of efforts on the part of the African Union and other organizations helps in maintaining collective security and mediation and confidence-building efforts among parties to any conflict. African Union forces also have a constructive role to play in setting the stage for United Nations peacekeeping operations and determining the nature of the activities needed to deal with emerging conflicts in Africa. We also emphasize the need for continued coordination between the two organizations and complementarity in their tasks in relation to post- conflict stages. That is embodied in preserving and reinforcing the ability of the African Union in the maintenance of peace and security as carried out by international peacekeeping operations and building upon that through effective integration and engagement in political activities among the parties to the conflict focused on promoting human rights and rule of law and developing the electoral and party system; because each of those tasks represents an important pillar in the maintenance of peace and security on the African continent. Moreover, Jordan reaffirms the need to preserve the central role of the United Nations throughout all stages of support for regional and subregional organizations. Also important is keeping the Charter of the United Nations, especially Chapter VIII, as a guide, when considering cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union. Through those effective partnerships, the United Nations can provide support to the efforts of African States to assist them in shouldering their responsibilities to overcome the challenges before them with greater effectiveness, in addition to providing assistance to those States in developing and implementing programmes in development and capacity-building in Africa, in line with United Nations development programmes. Jordan welcomes the comprehensive review of peacekeeping operations over the past 15 years, which will be further developed in 2015. We also consider it very important that the initiative should include an assessment of the activities and participation of regional and subregional organizations in peacekeeping. Jordan looks forward to the recommendations to be provided by the Secretary-General in the first quarter of the next year regarding progress in consultation and cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations in peacekeeping operations, on the basis of which we would then be able to study the effectiveness of the partnerships and ways to improve them and to restructure peacekeeping operations on a case-by-case basis.

We thank the Minister for Foreign Affairs and African Integration of Chad, Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, for convening this important open debate under the Chadian presidency. We welcome and thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the African Union High Representative for Mali and the Sahel, President Pierre Buyoya. At the outset, we wish to align with other States in rejecting the barbaric attack on the school in the city of Peshawar. We express our sincere condolences to the families of those affected and to the Government of Pakistan. For Chile collective action is crucial in tackling traditional and emerging threats and is enhanced by the involvement of regional and subregional organizations. It is very difficult to implement universal measures without a regional contribution. That is the sense in which my country interprets Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, which leads us to promote efficient multilateralism capable of incorporating the contributions of regional and subregional organizations, in line with the purposes and principles of the United Nations. We believe that the active participation of regional organizations and of the countries affected by conflict is crucial to resolving the conflicts, because they have a particular knowledge of the local reality, the contexts and the conditions that generate those cycles of instability and obstacles affecting peace and security. Moreover, regional organizations can facilitate ways of taking action in conflict situations, incorporate the vision of local actors which provide differing views on the analysis of the origin, form and resolution of conflicts and promote local ownership on the part of missions and in implementing solutions to the conflict. We value agreements we have seen involving the African Union and other regional and subregional organizations to promote peace and security. We encourage such possible interactions among those organizations and the United Nations system. In that respect, we encourage the establishment of regional agreements with a primarily holistic approach and the participation of local stakeholders in defining problems with interaction between regional organizations or the United Nations system, exchanging good practices and lessons learned in comparable situations and where there is economic independence for implementation. We must stimulate predictability, sustainability and flexibility in the funding of peacekeeping operations carried out by the African Union under a United Nations mandate to facilitate rapid and effective responses to conflict. That is crucial for comprehensive rehabilitation processes that allow a swift return to political and institutional normalcy and the protection of the population, particularly women and children. Such deployment will require well-equipped contingents, including procedures defined on the ground concerning standardized training of the contingents, with a particular emphasis on human rights. Likewise, it is necessary to simplify and standardize the forms of institutional collaboration among the United Nations system and regional bodies. The development of effective partnerships among the Security Council and regional and subregional organizations is crucial, particularly in the relationship between the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council. Coordinated efforts on the ground are important in tackling the various challenges when such efforts involve other multilateral and bilateral actors on the ground. The role of preventive diplomacy will be vital during the so-called Madiba Nelson Mandela Decade of Reconciliation in Africa, which can only be achieved by way of truth, justice and inclusive development. We believe that this issue requires ongoing attention at different levels of the system, which should be based on appropriate mechanisms to facilitate coordination and complementarity between the regional and universal spheres. To conclude my statement, my country would like to acknowledge the efforts and commitment on behalf of the African Union in seeking solutions to the challenges facing the continent and the important contributions to peacekeeping operations on their own continent and elsewhere in the world. As the international community, we must value and support these efforts. We would like to take advantage of this opportunity to pay tribute to those who have sacrificed their lives in defence of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

I thank the Chadian presidency of the Security Council for organizing this open debate on cooperation between regional and subregional organizations on peace operations, with a focus on the United Nations and African Union (AU) partnership. My delegation aligns itself with the statement to be made later by the observer of the European Union (EU). This is the third debate this year in which we discuss in the Council the issue of cooperation between regional and subregional organizations, which only confirms the relevance and importance of this cooperation. Some 70 per cent of the United Nations special political missions and peacekeeping operations are deployed in Africa. The continent’s regional and subregional organizations have been actively involved in addressing the multilayered challenges facing the continent, and their cooperation with the United Nations and other regional partners, such as the EU, has evolved significantly over the years. Many AU operations have been rehatted into United Nations peacekeeping missions. African capacities are a critical resource for United Nations peacekeeping, and United Nations support is a critical enabler for AU operations. The effectiveness of the United Nations and AU peacekeeping efforts is therefore interdependent on many levels. The EU also plays an important role by providing funding, as in the case of the African Union Mission in Somalia, bridging missions, as in the Central African Republic, or contributing to capacity-building and training, as in Mali, where Lithuanian trainers are part of the EU training mission in Koulikoro. the EU’s anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia, where Lithuania has participated since 2011, has been instrumental in reducing the threat of piracy in the region. At the fourth EU-Africa Summit, earlier this year, EU leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the operationalization of the African Peace and Security Architecture and to supporting training and capacity-building of African forces. The EU is working, through its African Peace Facility capacity-building component, to increase the capacity of the AU and of regional economic communities in the planning and conduct of peace operations. Such synergies are critical for the overall success of peace operations and need to be further developed. Enhancing this collaboration, including and based on the lessons learned from recent transitions of authorities from AU peace support operations to United Nations peacekeeping missions, is crucial. As other representatives have noted, owing to their knowledge of the region, regional and subregional organizations are best positioned to understand the root causes of a conflict and to take early preventive action, which is a key advantage in seeking to defuse a crisis before it explodes. Effective and timely partnerships can help prevent a conflict at its early stages, as recently demonstrated in the Burkina Faso crisis, where the joint mediation efforts of the United Nations, the AU and Economic Community of West African States proved to be useful to push the military back to the path of constitutional legality. That only reinforces the importance of strengthening AU and United Nations capacities for early warning, conflict analysis, dialogue and mediation, and the need for increased AU-United Nations collaboration in the area of good offices between the envoys of the two. The strengths of regional bodies as first and rapid responders to African crises must be acknowledged and further developed. We welcome the AU’s progress in rapid deployment in response to emerging crises, especially those that endanger civilians, and the commitment made by African leaders to operationalize the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises. The development of policies and guidelines, as well as training for the African Standby Force, as part of the African Peace and Security Architecture, should be further supported. Getting the partnerships right at the political, strategic, institutional and operational levels is important in order to increase actual success in the field. Better understanding of each other’s working methods and procedures and decision-making processes would improve cooperation and increase transparency. Deepening the strategic dialogue between the United Nations and regional organizations, as well as identifying concrete opportunities for joint planning at both the strategic and operational levels, would greatly benefit the collective action on the ground. Further strengthening relations between the United Nations Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council, including through truly interactive substantive annual consultative meetings, timely consultations and collaborative field missions, would enhance the strategic partnership and help to formulate coherent positions and strategies to address current crises. More effective and frequent communication between the Presidents of the Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council would also contribute to a timely exchange of information on decision-making processes. A strong partnership with the African Union is fundamental in mainstreaming protection-of-civilians mechanisms in all peace and security activities, including through the framework of cooperation between the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the African Union Commission Concerning the Prevention and Response to Conflict- related Sexual Violence in Africa, the designation by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for a Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security; enhanced collaboration between the Peace and Security Department of the AU Commission and the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflicts. Today we express our condolences to the people of Pakistan after the savage attack on a school in Peshawar. African States, too, have seen their share of attacks against schools and children. The shocking abduction of the Nigerian girls by Boko Haram earlier this year is just one of the many cases of such attacks. Closer United Nations cooperation with Africa’s regional and subregional organizations is essential for tackling terrorism and other trans-boundary threats. Enhanced intelligence information-sharing and effective sanctions implementation are important tools in countering terrorism. The role of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa and the efforts of the African Centre for Studies and Research on Terrorism should be commended in that regard. To stem terrorist financing, strengthening joint efforts in tackling human trafficking, illicit flows of arms, illegal trade in natural resources and poaching, among others, is required. We look forward to the Secretary-General’s assessment report and recommendations on ways to strengthen regional partnerships in peacekeeping operations and further discussions on the issue. We also look forward to the report by the High-level Independent Panel to Review Peace Operations.

I must begin by expressing the United States profound condolences to the victims of the horrific Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan. This gruesome attack deliberately targeted Pakistan’s — indeed all of our — most precious and sacred resource, our children. Cowardly and senseless violence like this only increases our resolve to fight terrorism and violent extremism. I thank you, Mr. President, for being here and for convening this important debate. We would also like to thank the Secretary-General and High Representative Buyoya for their briefings. Enhancing the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) is critical for advancing peace and security in Africa. From the Central African Republic to Mali, to Somalia, every improvement in the important partnership between the United Nations and the African Union has very real impacts on regional stability and on security. The African Union and its member States have demonstrated important leadership in responding to African conflicts through peacekeeping and preventive diplomacy to stop potential conflicts from becoming actual ones. Peacekeeping, whether it is done by the United Nations or the African Union, or in some cases both, is only as strong as its troop and police contributors. Member States must be willing to contribute the needed troops and resources, and troop contributors must be willing to robustly carry out difficult mandates. We commend the African troop-contributing countries that have answered the call again and again to serve in peacekeeping operations and that have demonstrated a commitment to implement their mandates, including the protection of civilians. While Blue Helmet United Nations peacekeeping is a critically important tool, it is not always the best tool to respond to a particular conflict. That is why so many of us have redoubled our efforts to support regional organizations’ capacities, including that of the African Union, to launch and support peace operations when they are needed and consistent with the Charter of the United Nations. The Security Council has a unique role under the Charter, but our decisions and actions should be taken in close consultation with all stakeholders, including Member States, regional and subregional organizations and potential troop contributors. Decisions related to the deployment of United Nations or African Union peacekeeping missions must be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the unique circumstances of each particular situation. Enhancing the capacity of regional forces to respond is critical, but the ability of regional organizations to deploy peace operations must be seen, of course, as a complement to, not a substitute for, the United Nations own ability to carry out robust peacekeeping operations. We continue to be immensely grateful for Africa’s contributions to peacekeeping. In September of this year, Vice-President Biden joined other leaders at a summit focused on generating new commitments to peacekeeping to ensure that the whole of the international community does more to share the burden. We have made demonstrable progress in our cooperative efforts to deploy troops quickly to crisis areas when the need arises, but we are still too slow. Delay in our crisis response often means more unnecessary deaths. To be quicker and better, we must work more closely and collaboratively. That is why the United States is committed to improving the Security Council’s engagement with the African Union Peace and Security Council. In our effort to do better, to do more and to do so more quickly, we should learn from the past. The recent transitions from African Union-led peacekeeping operations to United Nations-led operations in Mali and the Central African Republic demonstrate once again that the African Union is sometimes in a position to deploy troops to trouble spots much more quickly than others. Without the initial leadership of the AU and the contributions of African, French and other European troops in Mali and the Central African Republic, far more civilians would have died over the past year in both countries. That is why the United States has created the African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership, which envisions a new investment of $110 million per year for three to five years to build the capacity of African forces to rapidly deploy peacekeepers in response to emerging conflict. Under this programme, African partner nations will receive additional support and will commit to maintaining forces and equipment ready to rapidly deploy as part of United Nations or AU missions to respond to emerging crises. The United States is also prepared to provide additional support, including training for headquarters staff in key enabler functions such as engineers, to catalyse the AU’s efforts to establish its African capacity for immediate response to crisis, which is intended to facilitate the deployment of tactical battle groups of approximately 1,500 military personnel deployed by a lead nation or group of AU member States. There has been some discussion today about the financing of peacekeeping operations. In order to be effective, peacekeeping operations must be accountable, and they must be accountable to the organization that has authorized and funded them. That is why we do not support assessing States Members of the United Nations for the expenses of regional organizations. Such arrangements do not allow the United Nations to exercise critical, and indeed essential, oversight of complex operational undertakings. However, it is also why we continue to champion and invest heavily in support for AU operations through voluntary contributions and bilateral assistance. Since 2009, the United States has committed to providing nearly $892 million to develop African peacekeeping capacity and strengthen African institutions. Most recently, in 2013 the United States committed nearly $200 million towards training, equipping, sustaining and airlifting African peacekeepers of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali. In the Central African Republic, we provided critical equipment and airlift to both AU troops and the French forces operating alongside them. In Somalia we have obligated more than $680 million to the African Union Mission in Somalia on top of the more than $455 million in United Nations assessed contributions for the United Nations Support Office for the African Union Mission in Somalia that are attributable to the United States. Other partners such as the European Union, through its African Peace Facility, have similarly provided very robust support, and we look for other partners to do the same. In closing, I want to reiterate the depth of my Government’s commitment to strengthening African responses to crises on the continent, both bilaterally and through the Council. Today there are more than 67,000 African peacekeepers serving with the African Union and the United Nations in Africa. Their contributions to peace cannot be overstated. They deserve more support from all of us to train, equip and enable their deployment. As President Obama said during our United States- Africa leaders’ summit held in August, “The United States is determined to be a partner in Africa’s success — a good partner, an equal partner and a partner for the long term.”

Allow me to begin this morning by firmly condemning, as was done this morning by the President of the French Republic, François Hollande, the appalling attack against a school in Peshawar. We express our solidarity and convey our condolences to the Pakistani authorities and to the families of the victims. Indeed, what could be more cowardly than to attack children? I wish to thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Mr. Pierre Buyoya, High Representative of the African Union for Mali and the Sahel, for their briefings, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Chad, Mr. Moussa Faki, for his initiative and for presiding over our open debate today. I wish also to associate myself with the statement to be made by the observer of the European Union. I wish to begin by paying tribute to African Union peacekeepers, in particular today Chadian peacekeepers, who have died in the line of duty, as well as to their United Nations comrades. The role of regional and subregional organizations in the maintenance of peace is fully recognized by the Charter and makes a decisive contribution to collective security. Because of their geographic proximity, their knowledge of local situations and their partnerships with the countries affected by crises, the countries of a region, structured into regional and subregional organizations, are in a position to provide a useful value-added to the understanding, prevention, management and consolidation of situations. This partnership is foreseen by the Charter in its Chapter VIII, without prejudice to the Security Council’s primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Since the early 2000s, the African Union, subregional organizations and their member States have been mobilizing to develop their own structured capabilities in terms of peacekeeping. France fully recognizes this effort and encourages it. The growth of the African Peace and Security Architecture is part of an expansion of peacekeeping operations, in particular on the African continent. As a result, it quickly led to the establishment of a partnership between the United Nations and the African Union, namely, in terms of operational coordination: annual consultations between the United Nations Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council; the establishment of liaison offices in New York and Addis Ababa; and the creation of a Joint Task Force on Peace and Security, to name but a few. I will note, however, that the partnership is now operating at several levels, from the exchange of information to operational cooperation, and is also working in the context of the various dimensions of situations, from prevention to peacebuilding, including the arduous phase of peacekeeping. Recent events provide an illustration of the effectiveness and efficiency of this partnership. I am thinking, of course, of the cases of Mali and the Central African Republic, where a United Nations intervention was preceded by that of an African Union one. We will know more at the conclusion of the lessons- learned exercise requested by the Secretary-General in resolution 2167 (2014), but we can already at this stage welcome that experience and also acknowledge once again that undeniable progress has already been made in Mali and the Central African Republic. I would add that France, in keeping with its responsibility as a Security Council penholder for several African crises, will ensure coordination with the African members of the Council and the African Union representation in New York. In the context of its efforts to develop its own peacekeeping capabilities, the African Union receives significant support from several partners, primarily the European Union. The European Union early on made this a key focus of its partnership with the African Union. The observer of the European Union will elaborate further on this point, but I would recall that that intention has been put into practice through education and training programmes supported by a financial commitment of €750 million for the period from 2014 to 2016 and very substantial financial support to the African Union’s peace support operations. France fully supports that European Union policy and provides, in a national capacity, support for building and strengthening African peace capabilities. That priority was highlighted by the President of France, François Hollande, at the Elysée summit held in December 2013. France thus contributes to training 25,000 African soldiers. France also welcomes efforts by other African Union partners, including in particular the United States and China, that have undertaken or recently announced their intention to undertake African peace capacity-building programmes. We must ensure, however, that those contributions are coordinated and serve a shared vision of peacekeeping. The European Union is committed to that purpose as part of its tripartite cooperation with the United Nations and the African Union, which is undoubtedly a factor in the good cooperation that has been observed between missions in which the African Union, European Union and United Nations cooperate, for example, in Mali and the Central African Republic. That effort should be pursued in several areas, as the presidential statement adopted today (S/PRST/2014/27) clearly notes. First of all, in terms of funding, the financial sustainability of the system has become a major issue. The African Union has a lot of support from external partners who support the strengthening African peacekeeping capabilities. As recognized by the presidential statement we adopted today, the challenge is to also secure financial resources that come from the African continent to support the political willingness displayed by its leaders. Rapid deployment capability is an essential condition for the success of international interventions in situations in which time is limited. As we have seen in Mali and the Central African Republic, the deployment of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali and the African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic were essential to ensuring initial stabilization, paving the way for a United Nations peacekeeping operation. The transition between missions in particular is a question of increasing importance as the modalities of intervention diversify and succeed each other and/ or overlap. In that regard, the exercise on lessons learned will be instructive. An additional dimension to transitions, when interventions are being completed within the same theatre, is that of coordination in interventions, so that everyone provides the best of their capacities to settle the crisis. How do missions cooperate? What synergies are there to develop? That is also a field to explore in the light of recent experience. The questions before us today are crucial and contribute to the broader discussion on the evolution of peacekeeping. We will soon receive several reports laying out the problems and, no doubt, formulating recommendations, including the two reports requested by the Council in paragraphs 13 and 28 of resolution 2167 (2014) and the report of the High-level Independent Panel to Review Peace Operations led by Mr. Ramos- Horta. However, none of them will be specifically devoted to the question of the African Union’s capacity and its partnership with the United Nations. The request has now been made in the statement that we just adopted, which gives rise to an annual report. We welcome that, and France is grateful to Chad for putting that partnership at the top of the agenda of the United Nations and the Security Council.

China is deeply shocked and saddened by the terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, on 16 December, which resulted in many casualties, including many children. China condemns this terrorist attack in the strongest terms and expresses its deep condolences to the victims, the injured and the bereaved families. China is against all forms of terrorism and will continue to resolutely support the Government and people of Pakistan in their unrelenting effort to fight against terrorism and maintain the stability of the country and safety of its people. The Chinese delegation thanks Chad for its initiative to convene today’s open debate. I thank you, Mr. President, for coming to New York to preside over today’s meeting. I thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his briefing, and I have listened carefully to the statement made by Mr. Buyoya on behalf of the African Union (AU). The Charter of the United Nations entrusts the Security Council with the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Chapter VIII of the Charter encourages the pacific settlement of regional conflicts through regional arrangements. In today’s world, we face many problems and challenges that require robust responses at the international, regional and national levels. Currently, almost 70 per cent of the items on the Security Council’s agenda are related to Africa. Two thirds of United Nations peacekeeping operations are also deployed in Africa. As the largest and most representative regional organization in Africa, the African Union plays an increasingly important role in regional peace and security. Strengthened cooperation between the United Nations and the AU is required in order to promote multilateralism. It is also an important development in terms of international collective security mechanisms. China commends the United Nations for establishing a stable cooperative relationship with the African Union, strengthening its communication and contacts with the AU on the resolution of hot spot African issues and further strengthening coordination and cooperation in the field of peacekeeping. I would like to make four points on furthering the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union in the field of peacekeeping. First, the United Nations should respect the will of Africa and actively support the African Union’s peacekeeping efforts. In dealing with issues in the region, the African Union has more in-depth understanding and knowledge, and is in a position to put forward African solutions to solve African problems from an African perspective. The Security Council should consider supporting the AU’s key role in resolving regional conflicts on a priority basis and heed the AU’s opinion and suggestions effectively. Secondly, the United Nations should engage in comprehensive cooperation with the AU. That should cover many areas, including security and development, and the various stages of confidence-building, conflict prevention, the maintenance of peace, peacebuilding and sustainable development. Advocating for a culture of reconciliation and comprehensive development not only helps in addressing the root causes of conflicts, but also lays a more solid basis for peace in Africa. China supports the Security Council, the Peacebuilding Commission and the Secretariat in their efforts to build a multidimensional coordination mechanism with the AU. Thirdly, the United Nations should assist the AU in building its peacekeeping capacity. Due to capacity and resource limitations, the AU needs to strengthen its capacity-building in crisis response and conflict resolution. The United Nations should proceed from the overall goal of maintaining African and international peace and security; mobilize more resources to support Africa in its related efforts for early warning systems, peacekeeping deployment, good offices and mediation or dialogue; and effectively enhance the AU’s peacekeeping capacity through a multitude of channels, such as personnel training, logistical support, information sharing and exchanges of experiences. Fourthly, the United Nations should pay more attention to the transition of peacekeeping operations from the AU to the United Nations. Starting last year, with the vigorous support of the AU and other subregional organizations, the African peacekeeping operations in Somalia and the Central African Republic were transitioned to United Nations peacekeeping operations. China supports the Secretary-General in his effort to summarize experiences and put forward proposals on issues related to transitioning peacekeeping operations and further sorting out the cooperative relationship between the United Nations and the AU. China has consistently been a constructive participant in Africa’s peace and security affairs. To date, China has deployed a total of 2,000 peacekeepers to seven peacekeeping operations in Africa, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia. China wishes to increase the number of its peacekeepers participating in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, and has provided the African Union Mission in Somalia with multifacted assistance. In October, China held its first round of strategic dialogue with the African Union in the context of the peace and security sub-group. We are committed to implementing the China-Africa Security and Cooperation Partnership initiative, supporting the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises, continuing to provide training to African troop- contributing countries, and helping Africa to strengthen its peacekeeping capacities. We will continue to strive, alongside the international community, to contribute to strengthening peacekeeping cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union and to promoting its sound development.

I should like at the outset to join those who have condemned in the firmest possible manner today’s cowardly terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, which killed many innocent children and wounded numerous others. Our thoughts and condolences go out to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Pakistan. I thank the Chadian presidency for organizing this public debate on cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations, particularly the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union. Your presence, Sir, demonstrates the centrality of this partnership and Chad’s commitment to strengthening it. I thank the Secretary-General and the High Representative of the African Union for Mali and the Sahel for their opening statements. Luxembourg fully endorses the statement to be made by the observer of the European Union. The Security Council rightly recognizes the role and contribution of regional and subregional organizations to preventing, managing and resolving conflicts in accordance with Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. The strengthening of cooperation between the United Nations and these organizations is not only desirable, but necessary. It is in Africa that the cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations is the most developed. Cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union extends to many areas. I highlight one area to which attach particular importance — the protection of children affected by armed conflict. The Security Council has emphasized the valuable contribution that regional and subregional organizations can make in this sector, and has welcomed in particular the signing on 17 September 2013 of the joint statement of the Office of Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict and the Peace and Security Department of the African Union Commission. In that regard, I welcome the discussion held on 6 June within the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict with the the African Union Commission for Peace and Security, Ambassador Smail Chergui. It is important to pursue these efforts to institutionalize child protection mechanisms in all activities of the African Union in the field of peace and security. The examples of Mali and the Central African Republic highlight the operational impact of the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union. In both countries, in 2013 and 2014 African-led missions turned into Blue Helmet operations — the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic. As part of this partnership, we believe that the interaction between the members of the African Union Peace and Security Council and all the members of the Security Council, permanent and non-permanent alike, would benefit from being strengthened in New York and in Addis Ababa. This would improve the exchange of information at an early stage and thereby contribute to better informed decision-making on both sides. One year after the outbreak of hostilities in South Sudan, despite the concerted efforts of the United Nations, the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (GAD), the situation remains appalling. The main protagonists continue to give pride of place to military strategy, and with the end of the rainy season there is a growing threat of renewed large-scale fighting, with incalculable consequences for the already traumatized civilian population. Given the situation and the statements issued by IGAD and the African Union Peace and Security Council, we believe that the Security Council should take restrictive measures against any party responsible for violations of the ceasefire, obstructing political negotiations, or even violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law. The country’s natural resources, including oil, must also be used for the benefit of the South Sudanese people rather than to fuel rearmament and war. We believe that these measures are necessary to bring the parties to the conflict to finally engage in good faith in political negotiations for a lasting settlement of the conflict, in the primary interests of the people of South Sudan. The strength of a partnership is tested at moment such as this. Luxembourg welcomes the strong partnerships that have been established both between the United Nations and the European Union and between the African Union and the European Union. The United Nations and the European Union have developed synergies that benefit Africa in the fields of immediate crisis response, humanitarian action, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and development. That is the case in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Mali, especially in the area of security sector reform. Europe supports the development of African crisis management capacities through training and equipment. In 2016, more than 17,000 African soldiers were trained with the support of the Europeans — some, in Mali and Somalia, by instructors from Luxembourg. The support of the European Union and its member States is also demonstrated through their substantial contributions to the budgets of United Nations operations and African missions, particularly through the African Peace Facility. The presence of several operations in the same country, such as at present in the Central African Republic, reinforces the need for coordination at the political, operational and financial levels. Such coordination involves an ongoing exchange of information and experience at all levels of the chain of command. In this spirit, we support the deepening of triangular cooperation among the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union. We welcome the fact that the synergies among the three organizations figure prominently in the presidential statement S/PRST/2014/27, which we have adopted at Chad’s initiative. Luxembourg will continue to commit itself to strengthening the bonds of solidarity among the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union in order to better address the root causes of instability represented by the absence of development, inequality, exclusion, poverty and inadequate governance.

My delegation strongly condemns the terrorist killing of over 130 students, mostly aged between 12 and 16, in a school in Peshawar, Pakistan. This is a totally outrageous act of cowardice, and our hearts are with the families of the victims and the people and Government of Pakistan. I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for convening today’s open debate. Its importance is further underlined by your presence. I would also like to thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his briefing, as well as his ongoing efforts to improve the agility of peacekeeping operations, and my deep appreciation goes to Mr. Pierre Buyoya for his statement on behalf of the African Union (AU). The Republic of Korea welcomes the fact that the strategic partnership between the United Nations and the AU has steadily broadened and deepened, especially in the areas of conflict prevention, crisis management, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. We are particularly encouraged to see enhanced interaction between the two bodies, as exemplified by the annual meeting between the Security Council and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union. The growing United Nations-AU cooperation is most noteworthy in the area of peacekeeping. Over the past decade, the AU’s contributions to United Nations peace operations have become more visible than ever. African countries are now contributing nearly half of all uniformed personnel, which is a record high. Moreover, the AU peacekeeping missions have proved critical to swift responses to crises, as illustrated in Darfur, Somalia, Mali and the Central African Republic. Despite such progress, however, there are challenges on the ground. First is the fact that the lack of adequate financial and logistical resources remains a serious problem that undermines the AU’s capacity to undertake effective peacekeeping missions. We must work together to find a creative solution to securing predictable, sustainable and flexible financing for AU peacekeeping operations under United Nations mandates. Concerted efforts are also needed to strengthen African capacities to enhance its operational and institutional effectiveness. Secondly, achieving the effective transition of regional forces into a United Nations peacekeeping mission remains a difficult task where greater United Nations-AU collaboration is required. As we learned from the case of Mali, better coordination is critical to the rapid deployment of well-trained and -equipped troops. In that context, we support the ongoing efforts of the AU, in close cooperation with the United Nations and international partners, to operationalize an African capacity for immediate response to crises, as well as the African Standby Force. Such enhanced cooperation with the African Union is essential not only to the operational aspects but also in the planning phases. Our experiences from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali indicate that the transition process works best when there is coordinated cooperation beginning with the planning stage between the United Nations and the AU. At the same time, we hope that logistical and traning support from bilateral partners will also continue to reinforce United Nations activities. Before concluding, we would also like to underline that peacekeeping alone is not sufficient for addressing conflicts. Given the interconnectedness of peacekeeping, peacebuilding and conflict prevention, support should continue in parallel so as to enhance the AU’s capacities in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Cooperation between the Peacebuilding Commission and the AU should also be strengthened in order to support national and regional efforts to consolidate peace. In that regard, we hope that the 2015 review of peace operations will address those areas in a comprehensive and strategic way. Finally, I would like to express our full support for today’s presidential statement (S/PRST/2014/27) and thank Chad for drafting and leading the negotiations on it to a successful conclusion. We hope that the Council, building on today’s discussion, will continue to explore ways to strengthen the partnership between it and the African Union for maintaining international peace and security.

I now give the floor to the representative of Pakistan.

I would like to begin by thanking the Secretary-General, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Chad and the members of the Security Council for their condolences and sympathies regarding the horrendous terrorist attack on a school in Peshawar this morning. It was a heinous, unconscionable act of savagery that has been universally condemned. The Government and people of Pakistan are committed to fighting terrorism and promoting and protecting the right to education. Families in Pakistan are devastated, and the entire nation is in a state of shock. The words of sympathy, condolence and solidarity of those here today have touched the hearts of the people of Pakistan. We are a resolute nation. We will overcome this menace. The partnership between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) is an important constituent of the United Nations-led peacekeeping operations. It conforms to Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, which creates space for cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations in maintaining and bolstering peace and security. Today’s debate, convened by you, Mr. President, comes at an opportune time, since what we discuss here today will feed into the ongoing strategic review of peacekeeping operations commissioned by the Secretary-General. We welcome the strong institutional linkages established in recent years between the United Nations Security Council and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, aimed at determining causes and drivers of violence, resolving conflicts, supporting joint planning exercises and developing United Nations-AU operational models. Financing for AU peacekeeping operations should be predictable and sustainable. In that regard, we agree with the President that the recommendations of the Prodi United Nations-African Union Panel of Experts should be seriously considered for implementation, and that a fresh drive should be launched to generate indigenous resources. The United Nations-African Union partnership becomes most critical in managing drawdowns and transitions. Successful transitions usher in peacebuilding and pave the way for national, subregional and regional ownership. The African Union brings with it complementary resources, expertise and insight. The Secretary-General’s initiatives, such as the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Region, and the integrated strategy for the Sahel, have built on such complementarities. It is important to have clearer mandates and take preventive measures to stem fragile States’ relapses into conflict. Moreover, the African Union’s involvement at early stages of the Security Council’s deliberations on conflict resolution and management would help to ensure that the right course of action is adopted. The Council is increasingly mandating peacekeeping missions in volatile security environments. In view of the fast-developing crises and conflicts in the past year, rapid response and deployment have become imperative. Pakistan has recently decided to deploy a rapid-deployment battalion within the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also important to improve and harmonize the working methods of the two Councils through better communication. It is true that the more the African Union is politically involved with African countries, the more they will contribute to security initiatives, as the President’s concept paper (S/2014/879, annex) argues. In this debate, we should also bear in mind the following general points. First, when authorized by the Security Council, African peacekeeping operations should be supported, from planning and funding to equipment, logistics and training. Regional organizations and countries bear part of the responsibility for securing resources. In addition, resourceful countries and regional organizations should contribute more to the African Union’s capacity- building projects and programmes. Secondly, lessons learned from recent transitions must be collated and utilized for future missions. Interoperability is a major priority. We encourage the Secretariat to continue to develop exercise and training policies with regional organizations aimed at improving interoperability. Thirdly, Africa is the locus of the bulk of the United Nations regional and hybrid missions. Communication, consultation and coordination between the Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council should be enhanced to further build mutual trust and confidence. Fourthly, increasing regional capacities should not lead to parochialism or regionalization of peacekeeping. While drawing upon regional expertise, focus should remain on peacekeeper training, professionalism and performance. Emphasis on regional deployments raises the risk of peacekeepers becoming prone to taking sides and the United Nations subcontracting its responsibilities. Regions and subregions should not be removed from the international mainstream simply because they are not of strategic interest. Fifthly, regionalization should not lead to disparity in professional levels and standards. The United Nations should strive to develop and maintain uniform standards in training, equipment and technology. Sixthly, to cement their partnership, both the United Nations and the African Union should invest heavily in peacebuilding. Pakistan is deeply committed to collective efforts to strengthen peacekeeping through regional partnerships. Since 1960, Pakistan has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to peace and security in Africa. The bulk of our troops are deployed in the continent. Our experience in Africa has further enhanced our appreciation of the value of regional partnership and cooperation. We will remain a steadfast partner of the African Union.

I give the floor to the representative of India.

Mr. President, we congratulate you on your country’s assumption of the presidency of the Security Council and we thank you, Sir, for personally presiding over this open debate on “Peace operations: The United Nations-African Union partnership and its evolution”. We also thank the Secretary-General and President Pierre Buyoya, High Representative of the African Union for Mali and the Sahel, for their remarks. At the outset, we join the Secretary-General and other speakers in condemning in the strongest possible terms the horrific attack on innocent school children in Pakistan. We cannot but feel a sense of deep revulsion and horror. Our hearts go out to the grief-stricken families of the innocent children killed or injured in this barbaric attack. Our relationship with Africa is rooted in history. It goes back even to long before our common struggle against colonialism. With a strong political foundation, it has over the past many decades also acquired a vibrant economic dimension. At the same time, India is the largest overall contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations. Having sent more than 170,000 Indian troops to 43 of the 69 United Nations peacekeeping operations mandated so far, we have considerable experience in the field. We therefore feel we are well placed to comment on the subject at hand. We recognize the role of regional organizations, particularly the African Union (AU), in United Nations peacekeeping operations. We also support the strengthening of cooperation between the United Nations and African Union for the enhanced effectiveness of peacekeeping operations. At the same time, we also need to emphasize that, while regional arrangements can play an appropriate role in assisting the United Nations in maintaining peace, the primacy of the United Nations cannot be denied. The United Nations cannot disengage with the continent by contracting peacekeeping to regional arrangements, whose role must be to reinforce rather than to replace that of the United Nations. We also need to start worrying if the impartiality of the United Nations forces is called into question, which is a possibility that cannot be ruled out with the regionalization and subregionalization of peacekeeping. The concept paper prepared by the presidency (S/2014/879, annex) usefully draws attention to the financing of AU peacekeeping operations. It is undeniable that the provision of sustainable and predictable financial support is at the core of the success of any peacekeeping operation. The Prodi report (S/2008/813) recommended an option in which funds from the United Nations assessed peacekeeping budget could be used to support United Nations-authorized AU peacekeeping operations for a period of no longer than six months, with each decision taken on a case by case basis, with approval by the Security Council and the General Assembly, and with the AU mission making a transition to United Nations management within six months. The logic for meeting the expenditure from the United Nations peacekeeping budget seems clear as the AU mission is doing only what is required to be done by the United Nations and is so doing because the United Nations has requested it to do so because it does not itself have the capacity for doing so rapidly. Our recommendation would therefore be for the Security Council to request the Secretary-General to draw up a road map for the implementation of the recommendations of the Prodi panel. However, it may be fruitless for us to express our views if the Council adopts an outcome document — as it has done today — before opening the floor to non-members of the Council. While we greatly appreciate the tradition of open debates, we cannot but question the utility of this practice of hurriedly adopting outcomes. We have closely perused the recommendation given in the section of the concept paper that deals with managing mission transitions. These recommendations deserve serious consideration. Also important, however, is the very useful contribution to this objective already made by the strengthening of the United Nations Office to the African Union in Addis Ababa. The strengthening of that Office has helped to smooth transitions, which is an example of how simple actions on the ground can yield disproportionately significant benefits. Enhancing collaboration between the African Union Peace and Security Council and the Security Council is another area that could, in our view, benefit from simple actions on the ground, rather than anything more grandiose. We note the suggestion that elected African members of the Security Council should be provided with special observer status in the Peace and Security Council of the African Union. It would, however, be beyond the remit of this Council to make any recommendation on the manner in which an AU institution should be structured. In conclusion, we would like to commend the African Union for its cooperation with the Security Council. We also take this opportunity to urge both organizations to further strengthen their cooperation with the objective of maintaining of international peace and security.

I give the floor to the Managing Director for Africa of the European External Action Service. Mr. Westcott: I have the honour to speak this morning on behalf of the European Union (EU) and its member States. The candidate countries the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Turkey; the country of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina; as well as Ukraine and Armenia, align themselves with this statement. Like others, before anything else I join in expressing our condemnation of the atrocity that has taken place in Peshawar, Pakistan. We express our condolences to the Government, the people and the families of the victims of those involved. We recall similar attacks against schoolchildren in Nigeria and elsewhere, which equally deserved our condemnation at the time. I would like to thank the Chadian presidency for bringing to the table the subject of cooperation with regional organizations in the field of peace operations. The fact that the issue has been discussed three times in the Security Council this year is testimony to its relevance. The European Union expresses its support for presidential statement S/PRST/2014/27, which has been adopted and issued today. Chad itself has played a critical role in tackling regional peace and security challenges on the African continent and in its immediate region, so Chad knows that the kind of security threats that we now face almost invariably require a collective regional and international response, particularly where a peacekeeping role is required. That necessarily involves a range of partnerships. The partnership of the African Union (AU) and its regional organizations with the United Nations has evolved rapidly over the past decade, from capacity- building programmes to joint operations. In Mali, and more recently in the Central African Republic, the successful handover or transition of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali (AFISMA) and the African-led International Support Mission for the Central African Republic (MISCA) to the the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) are clear illustrations of that increasingly effective partnership. Today. Africa is the continent that contributes more peacekeepers than any other to United Nations operations. Nearly 50 per cent of the 100,000 United Nations peacekeepers come from African countries. The European Union has long-standing partnerships with both the African Union and the United Nations. In the field of security and peace support operations those partnerships increasingly overlap, and it is very timely to reflect on how that trilateral cooperation works, and how it could work even better. As was reaffirmed at the EU-Africa Summit in Brussels in April, the European Union is committed to supporting Africa’s efforts to manage its own security. To help build African solutions to African problems, we have from the outset supported from the outset the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), and we aim to give practical help at all levels — national, regional and continental — to enable its implementation, within the limits of our resources and our treaty obligations, which, for example, prevent the supply by the European Union of military hardware. A number of additional steps were identified in the road map for implementation of the follow-up to the EU-Africa Summit, including, first, intensified political dialogue on security, defence and crisis management issues; secondly, the operationalization of APSA, in particular by supporting the African Standby Force; and thirdly, the pursuit of sustainable funding for African deployment and crisis management capacity. The European Union has put its money where its mouth is. In the 10 years since 2004, the EU has provided €1.2 billion in support of AU-led peace operations through the African Peace Facility. That includes contributions to support both AFISMA and MISCA, but the largest amount has been the EU share of the costs of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). This is an excellent example of the three-way cooperation whereby the African Union coordinates the force contributors and assures the command of the operation, the European Union provides stipends for the AU’s 22,000 troops, and the United Nations and the United States provide logistics, equipment and training. It is a genuine joint effort. Such peace support operations, however, do not come cheap, and even the European Union’s resources are finite. It is therefore important that others also contribute to building African capacities, as some colleagues around the table have already indicated their countries are prepared to do, and help fund such operations until such time as African countries themselves can cover the full cost. We note that progress in implementation of the African Standby Force has not perhaps been as fast as anticipated, but we take note that the efforts to introduce the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises and to make it more rapidly deployable will be welcome and important. This trilateral cooperation among the EU, the United Nations and Africa is like the three legs of a stool. They provide a stable basis for peace support operations across the continent. In Mali, for example, the EU is able to draw on one of its other instruments, under our Common Security and Defence Policy, to provide both civilian and military training missions for the reconstruction and retraining of the Malian armed forces. That is part of a coherent medium-term strategy to build up Africa’s national capacities, enabling it in due course to replace the United Nations peace support operation, MINUSMA. All in all, 16 Common Security and Defence Policy missions and operations have been deployed on the African continent so far, usually in coordination with the United Nations and the AU, bringing practical support and concrete results in a number of fragile and post-crisis countries. In the Central African Republic, the European Union-led force, has been working closely alongside both the AU mission MISCA and now MINUSCA to provide vital protection for the civil population in Bangui. In Somalia, the EU Training Mission has been providing key support to the Somali security forces, which in turn have worked closely alongside AMISOM to improve the security situation and to push back the terrorist threat posed by Al-Shabaab. Through Operation Atalanta offshore, the EU has helped drive private piracy from the seas around the Horn of Africa. In recent years, as the EU has evolved with its member States to become a global player, we have used a range of our political, diplomatic, financial and crisis management tools to restore or preserve peace. Clearly, it is preferable to prevent conflict breaking out in the first place, and conflict prevention, together with early warning mechanisms, is an increasingly important part of our approach to fragile regions throughout the world. In Africa, we pursue such actions, again, in close collaboration with the United Nations and the AU. The Great Lakes is a good example of close cooperation in helping to resolve the challenge to peace and security that was posed by the Mouvement du 23 mars. The remaining problem there posed by residual elements of the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR) also needs to be dealt with if genuine and lasting peace is to be brought to that troubled region. We look to the 2 January deadline, when, if the FDLR has not responded, action will need to be taken. On Somalia, the EU has firmly supported the endeavours of AMISOM and the cooperation of the AU and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to enhance the effectiveness of our action in support of a more inclusive political process. In South Sudan, we commend and support the efforts of IGAD and the African Union, but we remain concerned about the situation in Darfur and urge all three parties — the United Nations, the AU and the Sudan — to find a way to enable the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur to complete its mandate. To prevent conflict, however, nothing works better than good transparent and accountable Government, in which citizens and groups in a country feel that they are represented and protected and that their concerns are heard. Hence, efforts by the AU and United Nations to encourage good governance, respect for human rights, the fight against corruption and the full respect of constitutional rule are fundamental building blocks to prevent crises. This was expressed clearly and well in the communiqué following the 463rd meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the AU on 27 October: “[B]uilding strong, responsive and accountable State institutions at the local and national levels that deliver essential services, as well as ensure inclusive political processes, rule of law and public security, is key to preventing conflicts and consolidating peace building gains.” The EU fully associates itself with those conclusions. The EU is prepared to continue to commit its instruments and experience to support African countries that have decided to follow this guidance in building effective, honest and loyal security sectors to manage the security of their own countries. We encourage other international partners to join the efforts to help finance such capacity-building. Strong cooperation between the African Union, the United Nations and the European Union can have the greatest effect in facing immediate challenges and in building long-term capacities to address underlying causes comprehensively. In conclusion, as we often say with our United Nations colleagues, peace and security cooperation has become a way of life. The same should apply to cooperation among all three of us.

I now give the floor to the representative of Brazil.

Thank you, Sir, for organizing today’s debate. It is a pleasure working under your leadership. I would also like to thank the Secretary-General and the African Union High Representative for Mali and Sahel for their briefings, and like those before me, to express our condolences to all those stricken by the heinous terrorist attack today that took the lives of more than 120 young students in Peshawar, Pakistan. Brazil extends its full solidarity to the Government and the people of Pakistan at this time of deep sorrow and pain. The convergence of purposes and actions among regional and international actors can only strengthen multilateral efforts to achieve peace. The history of the relationship between the United Nations and the African Union provides us with a number of lessons, which this debate can help to assess. Being institutionally ever more advanced and increasingly tested by a range of challenges, the African Union has not only experiences to share, but also solutions to provide. The Security Council does well in being open to dialogue and mutual learning with the African Union. Lessons should be learned from the relapses into conflict in Libya, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, as well as from the initiatives to promote the stabilization of the Great Lakes region and much of West Africa, even in the face of the Ebola epidemic. Mindful of the differences among the challenges faced by the two regions, South America, my own region, like Africa, is also seeking to build an institutional architecture to consolidate peace and enhance cooperation, under the auspices of the Union of South American Nations and the South American Defence Council. Brazil is a strong believer in African ownership in dealing with African issues. We praise the stabilization efforts now put in place by the African Union with the support of subregional organizations in the African continent. The United Nations and the African Union have collaborated in Darfur, Mali, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Côte d’Ivoire, as well as in efforts to alleviate the impact of Ebola in West Africa and to combat the threat posed by the Lord’s Resistance Army. We see the establishment of the United Nations Office to the African Union as an important landmark in the two organizations’ cooperation in conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. Cooperation between the United Nations and any regional organization — not only the African Union  — under Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations can be a way for the Security Council to better exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security across the globe. In no way should cooperation on peacekeeping be understood as a means of outsourcing the Council’s authority. Financial constraints should not drive policy decisions in cooperating with regional organizations. Hybrid missions should be evaluated according to their merit, not taken as models to be automatically replicated. Although it is fair to recognize the comparative advantages of local States  — proximity, better knowledge of regional dynamics, among other things — we should be mindful that often neighbours are not only part of the solutions, but also part of the problems. Interests and priorities may vary as one moves from the subregional to the global approach. The closer one is to the conflict, the greater are the effects of its action  — unfortunately, not always in ways conducive to ensuring lasting peace. Maintaining international peace and security in Africa, as anywhere in the world, is not and cannot be approached exclusively through peacekeeping. Diplomacy, conflict prevention, post-conflict peacebuilding and strong economic development with social justice are key to maintaining and consolidating political stability. In discussing the United Nations-African Union partnership in peacekeeping, one should not avoid the question of ensuring adequate means for implementing increasingly complex mandates. Peacekeeping mandates must be accompanied by the necessary resources. By the same token, regional actors should spare no effort to progressively bring their troops up to United Nations standards of performance. We commend the African Union’s efforts to have its Standby Force ready by 2015. Brazil reiterates that no amount of peacekeeping resources will be enough if diplomacy is not deployed with even greater emphasis. The cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union, as well as this debate, should therefore also focus on initiatives to foster mediation, prevention and peacebuilding. Political consensus-building is at least as important as building an effective peacekeeping force. The promotion of stability, the prevention of relapse and peacebuilding that leads to sustainable development are the ultimate goals. Last month, in my capacity as Chair of the Peacebuilding Commission, I visited Addis Ababa and had a series of meetings with the African Union Peace and Security Council, the African Union Commission and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Ambassador Téte António, who represents the African Union here at the United Nations, accompanied me. That dialogue underscored the complementarity among the roles and functions of the United Nations and regional actors in supporting political and socioeconomic recovery processes in African countries emerging from conflict. As always, Brazil stands ready to contribute its fair share, not only to peacekeeping but also to efforts to invest in diplomacy, conflict prevention and the peaceful settlement of disputes as an essential basis for cooperation with regional and subregional organizations.

I now give the floor to the representative of Sweden.

First, I would like to thank the delegation of Chad for providing this important opportunity to discuss how the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) can be enhanced. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and my own country, Sweden. Before going into the substance of today’s debate, however, the Nordic countries would like to add their voices of condemnation with regard to the horrendous terrorist attack committed in Pakistan. We offer our sincere condolences to the families of all the victims and to the Government and the people of Pakistan. The Nordic countries attach great importance to peace and security in Africa. We welcome the fact that there has been a deepening of cooperation between the African Union and the United Nations in the past decade. The AU and its member States have demonstrated an increasing ability to contribute to resolving conflicts on the continent. We endorse the important work done by the United Nations Office to the African Union, and we welcome the AU’s efforts to strengthen the role of its office here in New York. We commend the role played by the AU in leading regional missions, such as the African Union Mission in Somalia. At the same time, there are many lessons that we can learn from the cooperation between the African Union and the United Nations in Somalia, as well as in Darfur, Mali and the Central African Republic. We must strive to ensure better complementarity of roles. Difficult issues, such as financing and improved capabilities, must be part of that discussion. The Nordic countries welcome the intention of the AU to develop its civilian and military conflict- management capacities further, and stand ready to support that endeavour. For many years, the Nordic countries have helped to strengthen the institutional capacity of the AU Commission, the Economic Community of West African States, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the Eastern African Standby Force. We also contribute troops, not least to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, as well as military observers, staff officers, police and correction officers and other civilian personnel to both United Nations- and European Union-led peace operations across the continent. The Nordic countries are dedicated to continue supporting African aspirations and commitments so as to ensure peace, security and stability in the continent. The African Peace and Security Architecture has proved its value as a good framework for that endeavour. We believe that the AU’s role in ensuring peace and stability in Africa could be strengthened even further through closer cooperation between the Peace and Security Architecture and the African Governance Architecture. On this occasion, we would also like to recall General Assembly resolution 68/303, entitled “Strengthening the role of mediation in the peaceful settlement of disputes, conflict prevention and resolution.” That resolution stresses the importance of regional organizations in conflict prevention and resolution, and acknowledges the contribution of the African Union. The Nordic countries continue to emphasize the importance of the full and active participation of women in the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts, as well as in post-conflict efforts and cooperation. This is key to building inclusive and sustainable peace and security. Ensuring that the women and peace and security agenda is properly implemented in peacekeeping missions will also increase their effectiveness. In that regard, we commend the African Union for having appointed a Special Envoy for resolution 1325 (2010). The Nordic commitment to supporting peace and security in Africa is to a large extent focused on tackling the root causes of conflict, instability and fragility. Promoting peace effectively requires a comprehensive approach. Without sustained and inclusive economic growth, without equitable social development that includes men, women and children, without progress in democracy, governance and human rights, we all know that peace and security will be elusive. Fighting poverty, exclusion, injustice and impunity and implementing international law and global norms will therefore always be crucial for promoting long-term peace and security. Reconstruction and reconciliation after a conflict should also always receive our central support and participation. In that respect, we welcome the African Solidarity Initiative and look forward to its implementation. We need strategies to avoid fragile States relapsing into conflict. In that regard, peacebuilding and State-building are crucial. The Nordic countries and the African Union are already engaged in knowledge-sharing, and we would welcome further engagement from and exchange with the African Union in the international dialogue on peacebuilding. We welcome the recently held dialogue in Addis Ababa between the African Union Peace and Security Council and the Peacebuilding Commission, and we encourage the continued strengthening of such activities during the coming year. In conclusion, the Nordic countries welcome the particular focus of the Security Council on the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union, which should also be duly reflected in the Secretary- General’s review of peace operations. We stand ready to contribute by supporting regional capacity-building and participating directly in international and regional peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts, as well as other conflict-prevention and -management efforts.

I now give the floor to the representative of Malaysia.

At the outset, I wish to congratulate you, Sir, and Chad on assuming the presidency of the Security Council for this month. I also wish to address my delegation’s appreciation to you and your team for having convened this important open debate and for the thought-provoking concept note on this issue (S/2014/879, annex). Allow me to also thank the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and the African Union High Representative for Mali and the Sahel, His Excellency Mr. Pierre Buyoya, for their briefings on this issue. Malaysia associates itself with the statement delivered by the representative of Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement. We wish to underscore the importance of developing partnerships between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant statutes of the regional and subregional organizations. In that regard, we are encouraged to note the progress made in the ongoing cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union (AU), which is manifested in the ongoing capacity-building efforts in many important areas, including mediation, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. We note the structured annual consultative meetings that have been established between the United Nations and the Peace and Security Council of the AU. We further acknowledge the need to strengthen cooperation and develop a more effective partnership with the Peace and Security Council of the AU to address the many security challenges facing Africa. Over the last decade, the AU and subregional organizations have significantly bolstered their own role in building the architecture for peace and security on the African continent. Regional organizations, including the AU, are indeed well positioned to analyse the root causes of conflicts given their knowledge of the region. Such organizations can also provide useful information to enhance the effectiveness of United Nations efforts in the management of conflicts. In our view, while cooperation has intensified in recent years, the AU and the United Nations must increase and improve collaboration in the maintenance of peace and security in Africa. As such, we fully support the efforts undertaken by both sides to harmonize their approach to crisis management and peacekeeping, as well as to mobilize their resources to bolster regional security, whether in political, civilian or military terms. The partnership can also be further enhanced in a number of ways, including by learning news lessons, developing new tools and intensifying engagement with civil society on issues related to mediation and conflict prevention. In that regard, there is a need for the United Nations to build an innovative, flexible, action-oriented and balanced partnership with the AU so as to ensure that Africa’s concerns and positions are taken into account when making decisions on matters of fundamental interest to Africa. We also support the idea that there must be greater clarity on how the Security Council should best consult with the Peace and Security Council of the AU on major decisions relating to peace operations. We furthermore note that the United Nations- African Union Joint Task Force on Peace and Security issues recently adopted recommendations to strengthen the exchange of information between the United Nations and AU and promote joint analyses of conflict in order to build a common understanding of the causes and drivers of organized violence in Africa. We believe that this could be a valuable forum to strengthen regional efforts and cooperation to combat terrorism and other peace and security challenges across Africa. We also fully support the proposal to have a greater level of coordination between the Security Council and the Peace and Security Council of the AU on their agenda of work, in particular in relation to African issues and related thematic discussions such as the protection of civilians, women and peace and security, and children in armed conflict. As such, we believe there should be greater engagement and interaction between the Presidents of the Security Council and the Peace and Security Council of the AU, in accordance with Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. Given that the maintenance of international peace and security is primarily the responsibility of the Security Council, assisting in the capacity-building and funding of peacekeeping efforts of regional, subregional and other organizations that lack resources for peacekeeping should also be a concern of the Council. We believe that capacity-building and technical support for the AU in the area of peace and security is an important matter that should be addressed accordingly. The need for continuous operational and planning support as well as long-term capacity- building support is clearly established. This includes support to the planning and management of the ongoing peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations, as well as potential future operations and technical advice and support in the development of policies, guidelines, doctrines and training. The importance of finding a lasting solution to the funding of AU-led peace support operations cannot be over-emphasized. There is clearly an urgent need to enhance the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of financing the AU when undertaking peacekeeping missions under United Nations mandates. In that regard, the international community should consider the establishment of a financing mechanism that could be mobilized quickly as needs arise. The United Nations States Members could contribute significantly in this area by paying their annual assessed contributions to the Secretariat in full, on time and without conditions. In conclusion, my delegation wishes to reaffirm its commitment to continue working together with all partners and stakeholders in our collective efforts to advance the cause of international peace and security in Africa and around the world through the United Nations’ peacekeeping and peacebuilding agenda.

I now give the floor to the representative of New Zealand.

New Zealand joins those who have expressed outrage at the atrocity committed at the Pakistani school over the past 24 hours. It seems that more than 140 young people left their homes in the morning in school uniforms and now lie in caskets. No political creed, no religious creed and no military strategy justifies deliberately killing school children. That is a crime against humanity. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Pakistan. New Zealand has consistently advocated for strengthened cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, and there is no regional organization where stronger, more meaningful engagement is more important than with the African Union (AU). We therefore thank Chad for convening today’s debate and for the useful suggestions in its concept note (S/2014/879, annex). As an incoming Security Council member, New Zealand will focus its remarks today on improving the relationship between the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council Peace and Security Council. In that regard, we offer three practical suggestions. First, the Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council should ensure that their annual consultations are in a format that allows for a genuine discussion of issues and a free-flowing, constructive exchange. That would contribute to a deepened understanding of perspectives and greater unity of purpose between the two Councils. Secondly, consultations between the two Councils must not be limited to a once-a-year dialogue. To enable improved coordination on African issues, there must be ongoing conversations, particularly between the two Council Presidents. As Chad has suggested, videoconferencing could be used for those communications. For our part, before New Zealand assumes the Security Council presidency in July, we see value in meeting with members of the AU Peace and Security Council, not least with its Chair for the month of July. Thirdly, there should be constant, ongoing and better-quality information-sharing between the Council and the AU Peace and Security Council, including on emerging crises. We see value in Chad’s proposal that African members of the Council might observe meetings of the Peace and Security Council. We also welcome the ideas proposed at last week’s high-level seminar on peace and security in Algeria, particularly on finding ways to more closely link African members of the Security Council with the Peace and Security Council. Those ideas could be helpful to this Council’s work, including as part of the AU’s wider efforts to transmit its voice to New York. New Zealand is committed to playing its part by working closely next year with the so-called African Three — Angola, Chad and Nigeria — to ensure that Africa’s voice is better heard. New Zealand is a strong believer in supporting African leadership in conflict prevention under Chapter VI of the Charter of the United Nations — efforts that can be carried out continent-wide, particularly in the early stages when regional organizations often have a comparative advantage over the United Nations. For that reason, New Zealand is significantly increasing its diplomatic resources to engage both at AU headquarters and in African capitals, and has contributed to recent efforts to support African Union-led responses in Mali, the Central African Republic and Somalia. But in order to support AU and regional efforts in the longer term, solutions must be found to ensure that such missions have more dependable financing mechanisms. The Security Council must be prepared to take bold steps to resolve the funding and capacity issues faced by African-led missions. New Zealand is deeply disappointed by the continued failure to make progress on that matter. It is indicative of our commitment to partnership with the African Union that New Zealand, in partnership with the AU Commission, will launch the next African Union Handbook at the AU Summit in January. The second edition will be in French as well as English. It is a great improvement over the first edition, which was published in January. We hope that Member States will find the Handbook to be a useful resource, in a small but practical way, to contribute to the positive evolution of the partnership between the Security Council and the African Union.

I now give the floor to the representative of Egypt.

Allow me, at the outset, to express my Government’s sincere condolences to the State of Pakistan over the cowardly terrorist attack that led to more than 140 victims. We condemn that criminal act in all its aspects, which can be described only as a crime against humanity. In the context of today’s debate, I express Egypt’s sincere appreciation to the Chadian presidency for its initiative in convening this important thematic debate, with the participation of Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Chad. It reflects the commitment of the brotherly nation of Chad to the maintenance of peace and security from both the regional and the international perspectives. My delegation also aligns itself with the statement to be delivered by the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement. This meeting is important not only because its subject reflects one of the main pillars of the relationship between the United Nations and regional organizations, but because it is timely. It is being convened concurrently with the launch of the Secretary-General’s High-level Independent Panel to Review Peace Operations, which is tasked with evaluating and reviewing peacekeeping operations. Egypt recalls that the review is supposed to achieve tangible results aimed at strengthening the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) in peacekeeping operations. It also requires that African States contribute to developing the vision of the Panel. Likewise, we welcome the words of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Egypt delivered at the High-level Meeting in New York on 26 September, when he called for the holding of regional African consultations on the review process regarding United Nations peacekeeping operations. We look forward to the convening of those regional consultations. In 2006, Egypt proposed that such an item be included on the agenda of the African Union Peace and Security Council. Above all, the relationship between the AU and the United Nations with regard to peacekeeping efforts must focus on building AU capacities to deal with conflicts. For its part, Egypt will make every possible effort in that context, including by contributing to the full operationalization of the African Standby Force — by 2015 or by whatever date agreed on by the African States — for deployment anywhere in Africa, as well as to efforts to strengthen various capacities. Egypt volunteered, before any other country, to assist the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises, and participated in a summit in June on the margins of the AU Summit in Malabo. We are currently holding talks with various African missions on the nature of Egypt’s participation in that effort. The AU also held two important meetings in Cairo during the past month. One was a meeting of senior officials of the African Union and the East African Community on the subject of maintaining peace and security. Furthermore, on 20 and 21 November, there was a meeting of the African Union Peace Support Operations Division. It is certain that those two meetings will strengthen the African Union’s capacities in coordinating efforts with other African mechanisms, with a focus on strengthening African Union capacities in general. Egypt has always believed that conflict resolution involves not only peacekeeping, but must also include the complete conflict cycle. Post-conflict efforts are necessary to prevent relapses into conflict, ensure sustainable peace and promote development. In that context, Egypt’s efforts to promote the development of institutional cooperation between the United Nations and the AU has included hosting workshops in Egypt in 2014 to develop the regional dimension of peacekeeping. Egypt is also a member of the Peacebuilding Commission, where we have proposed the establishment of a real peacekeeping architecture for the African Union, because there is a dire need to address the relationship between security and development and to prevent a relapse into conflict. Egypt has concluded that current efforts to reform the existing mechanisms of the African Union and the United Nations are insufficient, so we have also called for the establishment of an African Union centre for reconstruction and development in post-conflict nations, which should become one of the main pillars of cooperation between the African Union and the United Nations. None of these efforts to strengthen the partnership between the United Nations and the AU will be fruitful unless we have competent human resources. In this context, the Cairo Regional Centre for Conflict Resolution and Peacekeeping is active in developing human resources and capacity-building in the areas of peace, security and peacekeeping in Africa, regionally and internationally. In that respect, I stress the important role being played by the Centre in northern Mali and in the Ebola crisis. We must also increase the human resource capacities of the African Union by managing interaction between the two organizations at all levels, including direct interaction and by delegating representatives and envoys. Egypt urged the African Union to establish a forum for meetings between officials of the United Nations and the AU. The forum was created in 2010, and it continues to offer a unique opportunity to exchange our experiences. All these efforts are geared towards empowering the United Nations and the African Union to uphold their responsibilities and duties in maintaining regional and international peace and security in order to promote stability and development. The African Union has made great strides in this direction and has developed the African Peace and Security Architecture. We now look forward to the United Nations increasing its contribution to support the African Union, as required. We hope and are confident that this thematic debate will help help to that end.

I call on the representative of Algeria.

Let me start by expressing our deep sympathy to the people and the Government of Pakistan after the horrendous crime perpetrated this morning against the schoolchildren in Peshawar. This is a cruel reminder of how terrorism is affecting our lives. I would like to acknowledge this morning the presence of His Excellency Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Minister for Foreign Affairs and African Integration of the Republic of Chad. His decision to be here with us this morning to preside over this meeting is an illustration of the commitment of Chad to the promotion of a strong partnership between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) in peace and security matters. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to Chad for its tremendous contribution to peace in Africa and in the world. As Africans, we are proud of Chad’s role in the United Nations. Algeria attaches particular importance to the role of regional and subregional organizations and their cooperation with the United Nations. We believe that a principled, consistent and strong cooperation between the United Nations, on the one hand, and regional and subregional organizations, on the other, is indispensable to the maintenance of international peace and security. Obviously, the African Union and its subregional organizations are better placed in terms of geographical proximity, political and cultural familiarity with local conditions, and shared experience, which are critical to making a real difference in the prevention or resolution of armed conflicts. As a member of the African Union, Algeria has always commended and supported the AU for its efforts over the years to strengthen African peacekeeping capabilities. Today’s debate comes at a time of renewed recognition of the importance of building a strong partnership between the United Nations and the African Union in order to enhance our efforts to promote peace, security and stability in the African continent. Building peace in Africa means abetting and supporting African-led efforts for peace in Africa. In our view, this debate comes at the right time, as the African Union is making tremendous efforts to address the peace and security challenges that Africa continues to face. In that regard, Algeria welcomes the steps taken for the full operationalization of the African Peace and Security Architecture, including the African Standby Force  — and, in the meantime, the African Capacity for Immediate Response to a Crisis  — and support the continued United Nations-AU cooperation on different components of the Architecture, including on early warning, preventive diplomacy, mediation, electoral assistance, peacekeeping, conflict prevention and resolution, and peacebuilding. The implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in the Sudan, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, the African Union Mission in Somalia, and the operations in the Central African Republic and Mali are also good examples of cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union. Furthermore, it should be noted that in the past five years, the Security Council has held no less than five meetings devoted to the United Nations- African Union partnership. While acknowledging that much progress has been made in cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union and its subregional organizations, it should also be recognized that much remains to be done. Such cooperation has yet to reach its full potential. We should like to stress the importance of further strengthening cooperation between the United Nations Security Council with the African Union Peace and Security Council, consistent with Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, to address common collective security challenges in Africa, taking African concerns into consideration. This is a crucial point, in our view. We believe that there is a need to establish a more effective relationship between the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council, including by ensuring more effective annual consultative meetings, the holding of timely consultations and collaborative field missions of the two Councils. In that regard, we look forward to the convening of the ninth annual consultative meeting, scheduled to take place in Addis Ababa next year, to address the issue of follow-up and implementation of previous communiqués and statements. The cooperation between the United Nations Secretariat and the AU Commission has also registered commendable achievements, as demonstrated by the regular consultations between senior United Nations and AU officials on issues of common concern and the mechanisms put in place to that end. However, we call for the strengthening of such cooperation and underscore the importance of developing the follow- up programme to the 2006 United Nations 10-year capacity-building programme for the African Union as an important contribution towards conflict prevention, management and resolution on the African continent. In his report of October 2010 on support to AU peacekeeping operations authorized by the United Nations, the Secretary-General rightly observed that: “The complex challenges in the world today require a revitalized and evolving interpretation of Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations” (S/2010/514, para. 54). Algeria fully shares that view. Clearly, those challenges require concerted responses on the part of the United Nations and the African Union and a much closer partnership, based on a creative reading of the provisions of Chapter VIII of the Charter, to allow the African Union and its regional mechanisms for conflict prevention, management and resolution to fully play their role as integral components of collective security. We should give due consideration to the critical issue of securing predictable, sustainable and adequate funding for African Union peacekeeping missions authorized by the Security Council. We need to understand that AU actions in the field are conducted for the maintenance of international peace and security. We encourage the Security Council to engage more actively with the African Union Peace and Security Council. Mutual respect, African ownership, consultative decision-making, division of labour and the sharing of responsibilities are the principles and foundation of any successful and productive partnership, especially in the area of peacekeeping. We also look forward to the review of United Nations peacekeeping operations to be undertaken by a high- level United Nations panel, which Algeria hopes will lead to the building and strengthening of a AU/ United Nations partnership, especially in the context of Chapter VIII of the Charter. We hope that this discussion will generate proposals and strategies in order to expand, deepen and improve cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union, with a view to strengthening the capacity of the international community to respond effectively to threats to international peace and security. We welcome the presidential statement (S/PRST/2014/27) adopted earlier by the Security Council.

I now give the floor to the representative of Japan.

At the outset, Mr. President, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for your leadership in convening today’s open debate. I would also like to thank Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon for his briefing. Let me begin my statement by underlining the importance of African ownership in resolving conflicts in Africa. The African people know themselves better than anyone else. Political mediation efforts and peace operations in Africa can best succeed when they are conducted in ways that are respectful of African cultures and traditions. Japan therefore highly commends Africa’s ownership in the field of peace and security. The African Union (AU) has been taking the lead in these efforts. The roles played by various subregional communities are also noteworthy. I witnessed on the ground how crucial African-led processes are in dealing with crises on the continent. When I served as Japan’s Ambassador to the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, I closely observed the situation following the presidential elections in November 2010. As the Ivorians went through political turmoil, the AU and the Economic Community of West African States mediated between the parties concerned. Although that did not prevent military clashes from occurring in the ensuing months, active engagement by those African institutions helped to lay the necessary foundation for the political stability and reconstruction that have been brought about in the country since May 2011, under the leadership of President Alassane Ouattara. African ownership and international partnership are the basic principles of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). These principles were reaffirmed in the Yokohama Declaration issued at TICAD V, which Japan hosted in June 2013 together with the AU Commission, the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank. As Director-General for African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I was directly in charge of the organization of TICAD V. I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate my personal gratitude to my African counterparts, in particular my Chadian colleagues, for their valuable cooperation in the successful holding of the conference. Among them was Ambassador Mahamat Zene Cherif, then Permanent Representative of Chad to the AU. It is a great honour for me to be able to continue to work closely with him in his new capacity as Permanent Representative of Chad to the United Nations. Today’s Security Council debate is particularly relevant and timely in terms of exploring ways to deepen the United Nations-AU partnership for peace, as the issue of partnerships is one of the areas on which the High-level Panel to Review Peacekeeping Operations will focus. I would like to touch upon two challenges to be addressed in this regard. My first point concerns the financing of AU peace operations. While the primary responsibility to secure financial resources lies with the African Union, the United Nations must continue to engage with the African Union so as to consider how to enhance the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of the financing of the AU operations mandated by the Security Council. In that context, we note that the Prodi Panel recommended the establishment of a multi-donor trust fund as a possible option. We are of the view, however, that this option needs to be carefully considered to see if such a fund would be operated under appropriate oversight, which should include a reliable audit system. Japan has been making its own financial contributions through the African Peace Fund, which now total approximately $12 million. Last March, Japan donated $3 million to the Fund to support the African- led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic, and, later on, the African Union mission for the Central African Republic and Central Africa. My second point concerns the issue of the rapid deployment of peacekeeping operations. Japan appreciates African ownership in this area. Japan looks forward to the early operationalization of the African Stand-by Force (ASF). We hope that the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises, which the AU unveiled last year, will serve in the interim to facilitate the rapid deployment of African forces. We would also like to commend the initiative taken by the United States to launch the African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership. Japan, for its part, will continue to support African endeavours, in line with the pledges that Prime Minister Abe made at the summit meeting on United Nations peacekeeping operations held in New York on 26 September. For instance, we are currently working on a new assistance package to provide heavy engineering equipment and personnel training in Africa. Furthermore, Japan’s assistance to peacekeeping- operation training centres in Africa contributes to the capacity-building of African personnel. As many as 13 peacekeeping operation centres have to date received a total of $36.6 million from Japan since 2008. Japan Self Defense Forces personnel have also been dispatched to manage programmes or hold conferences at those centres. In conclusion, I would like to underscore once again the importance of Africa’s ownership in the field of peace and security. We expect Africa to continue to actively engage in not only resolving its conflicts but also in preventing them. As a proactive contributor to peace, Japan stands ready to support those African efforts. Our contributions are not limited to capacity-building: we will continue to provide development assistance to reduce poverty and promote economic growth. We are confident that our assistance helps address the root causes of conflicts. Those are key commitments that Prime Minister Abe made to African leaders at the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V). The African Union Commission and the United Nations are among the co-organizers of the TICAD process. Japan will continue to work hand in hand with those two institutions to promote peace and prosperity in Africa on the basis of TICAD’s principles of African ownership and international partnership.

I now give the floor to the representative of Ireland.

Ireland joins with all other speakers and wholeheartedly condemns the tragic killing of schoolchildren and others in Pakistan today. In the words of my minister, it was an attack of savage brutality that targeted innocent children in their place of study. I wish to express my heartfelt condolences and those of the Irish people to the families of the victims and to the people and the authorities of Pakistan. Permit me to also thank the Chadian presidency for organizing this important debate. Cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations with regard to peace operations is a subject of key importance, and I welcome the opportunity to provide Ireland’s perspective. I would also like to align myself with the statement delivered just moments ago on behalf of the European Union (EU). This subject is a significant one. Today, more than half of the peacekeeping missions and just over 80 per cent of peacekeeping troops are deployed in Africa. In addition, almost 50 per cent of the more than 100,000 peacekeepers currently deployed by the United Nations are from African countries. Furthermore, some of the most challenging missions the United Nations is currently undertaking are in Africa  — in Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Such missions highlight the changing nature of peacekeeping, and they provide a serious test of how we carry out peacekeeping missions. The contributions from African countries to those demanding missions are also evident, including, for example, from Tanzania, South Africa and Malawi to the decisive Intervention Brigade of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We previously discussed United Nations-African Union (AU) cooperation in July (see S/PV.7228). In resolution 2167 (2014), adopted during that debate, the Council requested the Secretariat and the African Union to undertake a lessons learned exercise on the transitions from AU to United Nations peacekeeping operations in Mali and the Central African Republic. We look forward to learning of its findings. Looking more widely, Ireland welcomes the establishment of the High-level Independent Panel to Review Peacekeeping Operations, led by José Ramos- Horta, and looks forward to active engagement with it in the coming months, especially when it considers the question of cooperation with regional organizations. In making our contribution to the review, we will draw on our own considerable experience of peacekeeping and our strong commitment to the United Nations in addressing how peacekeeping needs to evolve to meet the new demands. We will be conscious in particular of the need to ensure that the protection of civilians is at the heart of mandates for peacekeeping operations. We also need more consistent and systematic application of resolution 1325 (2000) and subsequent resolutions on the same subject and to address the root causes of why women and girls are so disproportionately affected by conflict. We need to ensure that peace operations in Africa and elsewhere have the capabilities to protect civilians and the participating troops themselves. We also need to address issues such as rapid deployment, improved intelligence and performance assessment. We need to ensure effective command and control arrangements, which underpin the success and the credibility of operations. The United Nations also needs to seek ways to develop internal capacities — for example, in terms of police, courts and local authorities — so that conflict- affected countries, including in Africa, can build and sustain peace themselves. Those are issues that apply to all peacekeeping operations, but as I mentioned already, the balance of operations in Africa means they apply there in full. The successful implementation of increasingly complex mandates means that neither the United Nations nor individual Member States can work alone. Increasingly, the African Union and regional organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are taking the lead in maintaining peace and security in Africa and in meeting the many security challenges that the continent faces. That is a positive development. The generation of the African Standby Force is another positive development, and we look forward to seeing it fully operational before long. However, work remains to be done. Challenges to be overcome include improving the transition of missions, enhancing the logistical capacity of AU forces, addressing long-standing issues in relation to financing missions and ensuring complementarity and coherence across regional and subregional peace operations. Joint planning of peacekeeping operations also needs to improve. We welcome the cooperation between the AU and the United Nations in Somalia, the joint planning between ECOWAS and the AU on Mali and the successful coordination between the AU and the United Nations on the transfer of authority in the Central African Republic from the African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic. In addition, we strongly support all efforts to enhance three-way cooperation between the African Union, the European Union and the United Nations. Effective triangular cooperation will be critical to successful peacekeeping operations in the coming years. Nationally, Ireland makes a significant contribution to the training of African security forces, both through participation in EU training missions in Somalia and Mali and on a bilateral basis. In September, at the peacekeeping summit referred to by the representative of Japan just now, which was co-hosted by Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon and United States Vice-President Biden, we committed to further assisting the development of peacekeeping capacities among our key partner countries in Africa. We look forward to establishing a programme drawing on the expertise of Irish peacekeepers and reflecting United Nations best practices. Ireland, as a long-standing contributor to United Nations peacekeeping and an active contributor to EU-led missions, sees huge value in an ever-closer relationship with the African Union in the areas I have referred to. We support a holistic approach to preventing and resolving conflict that draws on all available tools and processes. We look forward to continuing to work with all partners in that regard.

I now give the floor to the representative of Turkey.

Before starting, I would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to brotherly Pakistan, which lost over 140 people in a heinous terrorist attack today in Peshawar. We reiterate our strong solidarity with the people of Pakistan. Turkey has declared tomorrow a day of national mourning. We strongly condemn terror in all its forms and manifestations. Today it has taken the form of the murder of innocent schoolchildren. The attack once again manifests the complexity and brutality of the terrorism threat that the world faces today. We all know that the African continent is no stranger to those threats. Turkey aligns itself with the statement delivered by the observer of the European Union today. I would like to thank the Chadian presidency for organizing this timely and useful meeting. In our view, cooperation with and between regional and subregional organizations is one of the most important and relevant issues on the peace and security agenda of the United Nations today. The international system and the United Nations face increasing challenges. A simple look will show that the Security Council’s agenda for this month speaks for itself, as it indicates the rising number and intensity of conflicts, most of which are in Africa. A great portion of the new threats are asymmetrical in nature, involving non-State armed actors and organized crime groups, some of which have connections to global terror networks. The evolving nature of the dynamics concerning international peace and security requires a recalibration in the international response to it. That, coupled with the administrative and budgetary challenges facing the United Nations system, makes partnerships with regional and subregional organizations in the field of peace operations all the more important. We are glad to observe the positive developments in recent years in the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) in the search for solutions to several conflicts in Africa. Turkey actively supports various United Nations and AU peace operations in Africa by supplying funds and personnel to the United Nations Support Office for the African Union Mission in Somalia, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, the United Nations Mission in Liberia, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire. We also contribute to the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund and the work of the Peacebuilding Commission. We encourage expansion of the United Nations-AU partnership to encompass such areas as institutional capacity-building, security- sector reform, the protection of civilians, human rights and gender mainstreaming, and combating organized crime. Turkey also contributes bilaterally to peace and security in Africa. At the second Africa-Turkey Summit, held in Malabo from 19 to 21 November, we reiterated our desire to continue collaborating in all fields of peace and security, including the prevention, resolution and management of conflicts through exchanging expertise and information, training programmes and strengthening a culture of peace. The joint implementation plan for the Africa-Turkey partnership adopted at the Summit outlines the way ahead to further strengthen our comprehensive collaboration. In discussing ways to achieve sustainable peace and stability in Africa, we must particularly emphasize the nexus between security and development. Despite the significant progress made in development in the past decade, it is still evident that Africa will continue to require further support from its international partners. Most of the affected countries in Africa lack adequate resources, capacity and expertise for a timely and effective response to complex challenges. The latest outbreak of Ebola serves as a reminder of this fact. We believe the partnership between the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) and the African Union Support to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA) could become an example for responses to similar crises. Turkey has announced a pledge of $5 million to the Ebola response, with $1 million going to ASEOWA and $1.5 million to be used for UNMEER’s activities. Humanitarian diplomacy is a key objective of Turkish foreign policy. As an emerging donor country, Turkey is keen to share its humanitarian and development experience with countries in need of assistance. Our approach is based on drawing on local expertise and utilizing genuine partnerships. Somalia is a case in point. The combination of humanitarian and development assistance offered by Turkey is reflected in its investment in human capital, infrastructure and basic services in Somalia. Moreover, Turkey’s development agency is conducting projects in 36 African countries, with a focus on building communities’ resilience, capacity-building and offering technical assistance in agriculture, education and health. We must continue to share our experiences and maintain our partnerships in line with the visions and strategies defined by host Governments. Strengthened and diversified cooperation between the United Nations and the AU, as well as increased support to the AU through various bilateral and multilateral means, will enhance local ownership and self-sustainability. Guided by those principles, Turkey will do its utmost to contribute to peace and security in Africa.

I now give the floor to the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Let me first offer my heartfelt condolences to the people and the Government of Pakistan for the appalling terrorist attack by the Taliban on a school in Peshawar, which has resulted in the killing of scores of innocent people, most of them children. We condemn that terrorist act in the strongest terms and reiterate our belief that those who try to create fear and kill innocent people must not be allowed to have their way. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). I would first like to congratulate you, Mr. President, on Chad’s assumption of the presidency of the Security Council this month, and to express our appreciation to you for holding this open debate. I also express thanks for the briefings provided this morning. The Non-Aligned Movement welcomes the determination of the United Nations to enhance its relationship and cooperation with regional and subregional organizations, in particular the African Union, in accordance with Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. Before addressing the topic of today’s meeting, I would like to reiterate NAM’s main principles regarding peacekeeping by saying that the establishment of any peacekeeping operation, or the extension of the mandates of existing ones, should strictly observe the purposes and principles of the Charter and those principles that have evolved to govern such operations and have become basic principles thereof  — that is, the consent of the parties, the non-use of force except in self-defence, and impartiality. NAM stresses that respect for the principles of the sovereign equality, political independence and territorial integrity of all States, and of non-intervention in matters that are essentially within States’ domestic jurisdiction, should also be upheld in that regard. NAM supports the continuing efforts to strengthen African peacekeeping capabilities and emphasizes the importance of implementing the Ten-Year Capacity- Building Programme for the African Union and the joint action plan for United Nations support to the African Union in peacekeeping in the short, medium and long terms in all relevant areas. NAM has also recommended enhancing the effective partnership between the United Nations and the African Union in order to improve the planning, deployment and management of African peacekeeping operations. NAM has always commended the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the Group of Friends of IGAD for their indispensable role and efforts in achieving the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for the Sudan and in sustaining peace and stability in the Darfur region. The Movement has always supported the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for the Sudan, signed in January 2005, which ended one of the longest-running wars on the African continent and thereby contributed to regional peace and security. NAM encourages the political process as a priority and emphasizes the need to focus on development assistance in regions affected by war, since peace and development mutually reinforce each other. NAM noted with satisfaction the sustained efforts made by the relevant Governments, the African Union, the United Nations and other interested parties that led to a lasting peace in Darfur, and we expressed our support for the Doha peace process for Darfur. It is NAM’s conviction that no action should be taken that could jeopardize the delicate nature of the process under way in the Sudan. We commend the initiatives and steps taken by the Governments of the Sudan and South Sudan to resolve their differences through peaceful means, and we urge that all pending issues between the two countries continue to be resolved in line with the agreements signed under the auspices of the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel, with priority given to resolving security issues and agreeing on border delineation in accordance with the January 1956 borders. NAM has also welcomed the adoption of the United Nations integrated strategy for the Sahel, as well as international efforts to mobilize resources and assistance in support of the efforts by States in the region to address the complex security, political and humanitarian situation. We stress that the strategy should be implemented in close cooperation with the States of the Sahel, West Africa and the Maghreb, as well as the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, the Community of Sahel-Saharan States and the Arab Maghreb Union. NAM also commends the contribution of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to lasting peace and stability there, expresses its appreciation for the continued commitment of troops to AMISOM by troop- and police-countries, and calls on members and the international community to provide the resources it needs to better fulfil its mandate. The Non-Aligned Movement commends the important role played in the region by the active leadership of the Economic Community of Central African States, as well as by the African Union and the international community, in promoting lasting peace and stability in the Central African Republic. NAM welcomes the positive impact that the action of the African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic has had on the ground in protecting civilians and restoring stability and security in the country. We also look forward to the outcome of the ongoing assessment by the Secretariat of the two related processes in Mali and the Central African Republic. Finally, NAM also commends the continued efforts of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region and the Southern African Development Community to ensure durable peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and welcomes the positive developments in the situation in the eastern part of that country following the end of the Mouvement du 23 mars.

I now give the floor to the representative of Indonesia.

To begin with, my delegation wishes to extend its heartfelt condolences to Pakistan for the deaths of over 100 innocent people as a result of the terror attack that took place today in Peshawar. We join previous speakers in expressing our fullest sympathy for the victims and their bereaved families and relatives. Mr. President, we would like to express our appreciation to you for organizing this debate on the cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations, in particular the African Union (AU), in the maintenance of international peace and security. My delegation also thanks the Secretary- General and the African Union High Representative for Mali and the Sahel for their respective briefings. Indonesia associates itself with the statement made by the representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement. The contributions of regional and subregional organizations to the maintenance of international peace and security, particularly in promoting dialogue and confidence-building, conflict prevention, peacebuilding and peacekeeping, cannot be overemphasized. Indeed, it has been established that regional organizations, on account of their knowledge of their regions, are well positioned to understand the root causes of many conflicts closer to home and therefore to influence their prevention or resolution. As a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Indonesia has historically and vigorously promoted the significant role of regional and subregional organizations, as they can fundamentally generate security and prosperity in their respective regions. Indonesia has also strongly promoted interregional activities between Southeast Asia and other regions. In that spirit, during Indonesia’s presidency of the Council in November 2007, we initiated an open debate on this particular agenda item, resulting in a presidential statement (S/PRST/2007/42). That presidential statement clearly stated, inter alia, the importance of promoting the identification and further development of modalities that enhance the contribution of regional and subregional organizations to the work of the Council in maintaining international peace and security, in accordance with Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter. It further stressed the need to strengthen the interaction between the Security Council and regional organizations. Cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations, particularly between the United Nations and the African Union, is a major multilateral commitment that we must all continue to encourage, support and contribute to. Indonesia supports the enhancement of cooperation and partnership between the United Nations and the African Union, in whose region most of the conflicts have occurred. We are encouraged by the fact that various important initiatives and activities have been developed between the United Nations and the AU. Moreover, the deepening of United Nations-African Union partnerships has also been intensely increased in the field of peacekeeping operations and special political missions. We agree, however, that this partnership continues to be challenged by several elements, as stated in the concept note for today’s meeting (S/2014/879, annex). It is our view that cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations will be viable and sustained when it is developed on the basis of equal partnership. That is also the case with respect to cooperation between the United Nations and the AU in the context of peacekeeping operations and political missions. We therefore welcome the adoption today of presidential statement S/PRST/2014/27, which reiterates, inter alia, the importance of establishing a more effective relationship between the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council, as well as formulating cohesive positions and strategies in dealing with conflict situations in Africa. Indonesia agrees with the Council’s emphasis on encouraging the United Nations and the African Union to take concrete steps to strengthen their relationships and develop a more effective partnership. We also highlight the need to enhance the United Nations-AU predeployment joint planning and joint mission assessment processes to promote common understanding and increase effectiveness of United Nations peacekeeping operations. We also agree that there is a need to enhance the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of financing regional organizations, including the African Union, when they undertake peacekeeping under a Security Council mandate. In order to guarantee closer collaboration between the United Nations and regional organizations, it is pertinent to ensure that there not only is a legal foundation for such cooperation, but also mutual trust and confidence, which can be built and sustained through regular dialogues as well as comprehensive sharing and exchange of knowledge and expertise. My delegation also encourages the enhancement of regular discussions between the Secretariat and regional organizations in order to better identify and understand the needs of both entities in ensuring effective joint responses to security challenges. There is no doubt that the increase in the number of United Nations peacekeeping operations and the growing role played by regional organizations make it particularly necessary for the United Nations to step up its efforts and measures in creating mechanisms for effective cooperation with such organizations. To conclude, Indonesia wishes to reiterate its support for the enhancement of cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations. We believe that the unique potential and capabilities of regional organizations in regional confidence-building and preventive diplomacy should be further utilized to establish lasting peace and security.

I now give the floor to the representative of the Netherlands.

I would like to add my voice to those of us who have expressed condolences to Pakistan for the unspeakable atrocity that occurred today. I am very sorry to say, also, that I would like to extend my condolences to Yemen, where a horrible attack has also taken place. My Government condemns these acts of appalling terror that violate everything humanity stands for. Mr. President, I would now like to express my appreciation for your initiative to organize this important open debate. I align myself with the statement made by the observer of the European Union. In the light of time constraints, I will read out a shortened version of my statement. My full text will be available via Twitter. My Government thanks Chad for the excellent cooperation between both our contingents in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Mr. President, we commend the dedication and perseverance of your country’s peacekeepers under the harshest of circumstances in northern Mali. We commemorate the brave Chadian peacekeepers who were killed in action and pay tribute to their determination and to their contribution to the cause of peace. We need new and innovative approaches to maintaining and restoring peace and security. Conflicts are changing in nature, from conflicts between States to conflicts within States. Poverty, inequality and lack of perspective combine into an unstable mix, which forms a breeding ground for violent extremism that can easily spill across borders. New threats, such as terrorism, transnational crime and Ebola, demand international cooperation and a concerted effort. These are not just challenges for Africa, but for the international community as a whole. Enhancing the partnership between the United Nations and the AU is therefore in the interest of all of us. Member States should contribute what they can, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands aims to do its fair share. My Government is committed to peace and security in Africa. Most of our military, police and civil experts worldwide are deployed in missions in Africa. The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a partner for Africa. Let me mention, for example, our contingents in MINUSMA and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, our training of African peacekeepers, our anti-piracy activities and our logistical support through our naval vessel Karel Doorman in the fight against Ebola. Regional organizations play an increasingly important role in maintaining peace and security, complementing United Nations efforts. We therefore welcome the fact that the African Union is rapidly developing into a stronger and more effective organization. As an example already addressed by some speakers today, AU missions are increasingly deployed ahead of United Nations missions. That illustrates the need for close cooperation between the United Nations and the AU, especially between the Security Council and the Peace and Security Council of the African Union. Complex conflicts demand a comprehensive approach, combining diplomacy, development cooperation, defence, police, justice and trade, with a specific focus on the issue of women, peace and security. The Netherlands believes that such a comprehensive approach would further strengthen United Nations-AU efforts. For example, links between the African Peace and Security Architecture, the African Governance Architecture and the regional economic communities could be enhanced. We believe that this would lead to more sustainable results. Transparent and inclusive governance, respect for human rights and post-conflict reconstructive measures lead to more stable societies, lowering the risks of a return to conflict. We welcome the African Union’s initiatives in those areas. Let me also highlight the issue of prevention, echoing my Indonesian colleague. The African Peace and Security Architecture contains several important instruments in that field. It is quite simple — prevention saves lives. In conclusion, it is my country’s ambition to remain Africa’s partner for peace, justice and development. We are fully committed to continuing our active role in United Nations peacekeeping, in particular in Africa. We wholeheartedly support the initiative to strengthen the role of the African Union in maintaining peace and security on the continent, and to improve cooperation with the United Nations.

I give the floor to the representative of Slovakia.

At the outset, allow me to join previous speakers in expressing our condolences to the parents and families of those who lost their lives during the horrific attack in Peshawar this morning, as well as our strong condemnation of that brutal act. I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President, and your country, Chad, on assuming the presidency of the Security Council. Allow me to wish you every success in steering this important organ. I also would like to express my gratitude to you for convening today’s important debate on such a critical and timely topic. It provides a great opportunity for all of us to discuss and share views concerning the modalities of cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, with an emphasis on the African Union (AU), in the field of peace operations. Slovakia fully aligns itself with the statement delivered by the observer of the European Union. Nevertheless, I wish to make few additional remarks in my national capacity. The international community has recently faced a growing number of increasingly complex multifaceted challenges. The changing global context in the area of peace and security confronts us with repeated cycles of violence, collapsing governance and endemic instability that adversely impact all aspects of civilian socioeconomic life. The situation is further exacerbated not only by the shifting character of conflicts, but also by the diverse nature of conflict parties and their motivations. Those challenges have become plainly visible and commonly recognized in various parts of the world, leading to augmented pressure and intensified demand on peace operations to adequately adapt and effectively react. To put it simply, the response must be as complex as the challenges. In such an environment, successful response requires enhanced cooperation and strengthened partnership between the United Nations and relevant regional and subregional organizations, as well as between and among those same regional and subregional organizations. Slovakia supports the trend towards building such partnerships, in particular with respect to the African Union and its regional organizations. Such an approach would allow us more efficiently and effectively to steer a path through conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding all the way to sustainable peace. It is remarkable to note that almost half the participants in current United Nations peacekeeping missions come from Africa. Recent transitions from the African-led International Support Mission in Mali to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, and from the African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic have proved once again the significance of effective United Nations-AU operational partnership on the ground. At the same time, we are fully aware that peace operations represent a complex process, requiring time and resources. Such a process consists of various components and layers that are mutually interconnected and interlocked. Seldom has one country or even a single organization had the ability and capacity to contribute to the support and development of all peace instruments and security mechanisms. Therefore, the specific expertise and thematic focus of Member States and regional and subregional organizations add value to the overall success of the entire project of peace operations. In that respect, the direct experience of many United Nations and AU peace missions and operations clearly shows that a nationally led and inclusive security sector reform (SSR) process can progressively deal with the root causes of insecurity and fragility and create an enabling environment that allows sustainable development and peace to take root. In addition, security sector reform is directly linked to the protection of civilians and the rule of law — two critical tasks that have become an integral part of almost every peace operation. Resolution 2151 (2014) on security sector reform, adopted in April under the Nigerian presidency, is a key milestone in those ongoing efforts. It also underscores the importance of partnerships and cooperation with and among regional organizations in supporting security sector reform. For us, building effective partnerships is vital to ensuring that the international community remains the best actor to appropriately respond to growing needs and multiple challenges, that there is a coordinated approach, and that we are able to share our experience and expertise when needed. Slovakia has long sought to further strengthen working partnerships among the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the area of SSR. Such a dialogue can be critical in helping to build synergy while also preventing the fragmentation of efforts. We actively promote the creation of synergies in order to avoid overlapping and duplication, as well as to streamline available resources. Our active engagement and commitments in that area were personally reiterated by Mr. Miroslav Lajčák, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia, during his recent trip to Ethiopia and Kenya at the end of November, when he met and held fruitful discussions with high-ranking AU and United Nations officials. During his visit, Slovakia, together with the African Union, organized the Africa Forum on Security Sector Reform in Addis Ababa from 24 to 26 November; and on 26 November, in partnership with the United Nations Office in Nairobi, our country organized a panel discussion in Nairobi on the challenges of and opportunities for security sector reform in East Africa and the Horn of Africa. Along with other issues, both events highlighted the important role that regional and subregional organizations can play in SSR processes in view of the cross-border nature of the many challenges to peace and security. At the same time, they noted the central role of the United Nations in all global peace and security issues, and the vital role of the partnership with the AU and its member States in regional peace and security efforts in Africa, including peace operations. In conclusion, I wish to confirm Slovakia’s continuing support for building effective partnerships between the United Nations and the AU and other subregional organizations in Africa, and our readiness to build close coordination and cooperation in that area of common interest. We stand ready to share our own experience in that regard.

I now give the floor to the representative of Namibia.

I congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for this month, and would like to thank you for convening this very important debate on cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations in the maintenance of international peace and security. I also thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Head of the African Union (AU) Mission in Mali and the Sahel, former President Pierre Buyoya, for their insightful briefings. Let me use this opportunity to also thank the non-permanent members of the Security Council during 2013-2014 for their contribution to the maintenance of a peaceful world. My delegation aligns itself with the statement delivered by the representatiave of the Islamic Republic of Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement. Namibia also joins the other delegations in condemning the horrendous attacks on the schoolchildren in Pakistan. We believe the Security Council has a duty to take action on that matter. Today’s peacekeeping activities have both increased and strained United Nations resources and capacity owing to various changes in the operations, both quantitative and qualitative. Peacekeeping operations are more complex and demanding then ever, with various factors contributing to the changing nature of peacekeeping. They include the often intra-State nature of conflicts, the lack of full consent and cooperation on the part of the parties and the breakdown of law and order. The United Nations faces increasing challenges from the emergence of uncontrolled militias and armed civilians, the collapse of State structures and the targeting of civilians during conflicts, with the attendant humanitarian disasters, which include mass movements of people, who become internally displaced persons and refugees. The importance of the partnership between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations can be traced to the timely intervention of the African Union in the conflicts in the Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and, recently, in Mali. Such timely intervention averted the escalation of those conflicts, which could have lead to ethnic cleansing, and has contributed immensely to the later transfer of those missions to United Nations peacekeeping operations. The United Nations has extensive experience in best practices pertaining to peacekeeping operations. We believe that experience is central to the partnership and should be conveyed to the relevant regional organizations. Furthermore, the respective roles should be based on their comparative advantages. Regional and subregional organizations have the comparative advantages of geographic proximity and a deeper understanding of the root causes of the conflict and the cultural dimensions of the local community. Therefore, the Council should engage more with regional organizations so as to enable them to deal effectively international peace and security issues. Although Chapter V, Article 24, of the Charter of the United Nations clearly vests the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security with the Security Council, the Charter also provides a role for regional organizations and arrangements in the maintenance of peace and security in their respective regions. Chapter VI, Article 33, paragraph 1, provides that parties to any dispute endangering international peace and security “shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.” Chapter VIII, Article 52, paragraph 1, stipulates that nothing in the Charter is to preclude “the existence of regional arrangements or agencies for dealing with such matters relating to the maintenance of international peace and security as are appropriate for regional action”. Paragraph 2 of the same Article goes on to invite Member States entering into such arrangements or disputes through such regional arrangements or constituting such agencies to “make every effort to achieve pacific settlement of local disputes through such regional arrangements or by such regional agencies before referring them to the Security Council.” Namibia has experience in its own region through the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In that regard, we understand implicitly the comparative advantage that regional organizations can bring to conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. We fully subscribe to the complementarity of the roles of regional organizations and the United Nations in containing threats to peace and security. As such, SADC member States have committed themselves to strengthening the thematic group of the international cooperating partners on peace and security by enhancing capacity for implementation, monitoring, evaluation. They have also agreed to a mutual defence pact on military intervention to resolve regional conflict in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. In that connection, in March 1998, the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation authorized an intervention to restore democracy and the rule of law in the Kingdom of Lesotho, after the disputed parliamentary election results had ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy Party winning overwhelming, 79 out of 80 seats, and the opposition party alleged vote fraud. In 2009, following a coup in Madagascar, the African Union suspended the country’s membership. SADC took the lead in mediating a solution and appointed the former President of Mozambique, His Excellency Mr. Joaquim Chissano, to try to mediate a political solution, a process that led to the holding of free and fair elections in Madagascar. This year, SADC further resolved several months of political stalemate in Lesotho. The mediation efforts were led by South African Deputy President, His Excellency Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, on behalf of SADC. In conclusion, I would like to thank regional and subregional organizations for their valuable contribution towards our shared goals of maintaining international peace and security as set out in the United Nations Charter.

I now give the floor to the representative of Kazakhstan.

I would like to join previous speakers in offering our profound condolences for those who lost their innocent lives in the tragic terrorist attack in Peshawar, Pakistan, which only makes us more resolute to fight terrorism. I thank the presidency of Chad for convening this important debate on cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations, in particular on the United Nations-African Union (AU) partnership. Both the United Nations Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council have a legitimate interest and genuine desire to build on the various peace and security coordination mechanisms established jointly by the United Nations and the African Union since 2006. Considerable progress has resulted from that deep relationship, including joint consultative mechanisms. Mutual support and cooperation also need to respond better to peace and security challenges in Africa by strengthening the AU capacity in peace operations. With the devastation afflicting the lives of civilians today, it is obvious that the issues of accountability and the protection of civilians and children in armed conflict also raise paramount concerns. Ending impunity and promoting justice and reconciliation remain among the core objectives, and the United Nations and the AU need to develop a policy framework on transitional justice, especially on the issue of impunity and its relationship with peace, justice, reconciliation and healing. Modernizing the police force and enhancing security-sector reform draw the attention of both Organizations. A major challenge also lies in jointly designing hybrid operations, with more comprehensive and multidimensional approaches. At the same time, coordination between the United Nations and the AU is important in order to avoid duplication or rivalry. We recognize that cooperation with other emerging peacekeeping operations and institutions is essential to make existing and new peace operations succeed. Considerable efforts have been made to move from ad-hoc cooperation to more permanent and predictable coordination mechanisms, and overall success depends on coherent and integrated relations at all levels. My delegation proposes that the United Nations assistance to the AU under the Ten-Year Capacity- Building Programme ending in 2015 should continue to cover the following areas: peace and security, capacity- building for mediation, democracy and electoral assistance and support for the AU Peace and Security Council. That can be achieved through exchanges on regional political developments and responses, knowledge-sharing and management, strategic policy development, lessons learned, the training of experts and strengthening non-governmental organizations. Guidance should also encompass the establishment of sanctions committees, the building of institutional memory and the strengthening of the work of the AU Gender Directorate in the areas of peace and security. Kazakhstan welcomes the AU decision to mark its fiftieth anniversary in May 2013 with a solemn declaration by African leaders pledging “to end all wars in Africa by 2020” and “achieve the goal of a conflict- free Africa”. We also appreciate that 2014-2024 has been declared as the Madiba Nelson Mandela Decade of Reconciliation in Africa. Since poverty and deprivation breed conflict, our efforts must also be directed at achieving development that ensures political and socioeconomic stability. Kazakhstan is therefore carrying out several initiatives to promote the economic growth of the continent as part of peacebuilding and recovery processes. Those initiatives include the Astana EXPO-2017 World Specialized Exhibition on Future Energy and the Green Bridge Partnership programme, aimed at transferring new technologies to developing countries. With the vast potential that lies ahead, Kazakhstan, which now has observer status with the AU, has established its Embassy in Addis Ababa and is trying to better understand and become more involved in African Union activities, including by deploying Kazakhstan peacekeepers in Africa. My country is committed to developing mutual cooperation with the AU and calls for further fostering the political relationship between the United Nations Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council. Although peacekeeping operations can achieve a great deal, Kazakhstan will work with the international community to develop more viable and lasting political processes.

I now give the floor to the representative of Italy.

I wish to thank your country, Sir, for having convened this very important open debate. Italy fully aligns itself with the statement delivered on behalf of the European Union (EU) and would like to add a few remarks in its national capacity. I know it is late, but please allow me, first of all, to say a few words to express Italy’s heartfelt condolences to Pakistan following the horrible terrorist attack that struck the country in recent hours. Italy strongly encourages cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, in keeping with Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. Regional organizations can, at times, be better positioned to respond to certain problems, emergencies and crises. We must therefore use such comparative advantages and support regional organizations that can assume leadership, as necessary and jointly agreed, so as to ensure coherence in the response of the international community and avoid the duplication of efforts. We therefore welcome and support the efforts of the African Union to strengthen its capacities in the prevention of conflicts and in peacekeeping, and its active role in defining and implementing African solutions to African problems. We encourage the strengthening of the African Union-United Nations partnership, including through the joint planning of peacekeeping operations, so as to facilitate a smooth transition to United Nations peace missions. To that end, we look forward to a harmonization of the standards for troop- and police-contributing countries. Over the years, Italy has strongly supported  — politically and financially  — the endeavours of the African Union. We have done so both bilaterally and within the framework of the European Union and with full respect for the principles of national and African ownership. Through the Italian African Peace Facility, we have allocated approximately €30 million for a number of initiatives developed by the African Union. In the security sector, we have contributed to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), to the development of the African Standby Force, to bilateral initiatives defined jointly with the African Union and to efforts to support the Somali security forces in developing their capacities. Furthermore, since last February, Italy has held the command of, and provided the main contingent to, the European Union Training Mission Somalia and for the Somali security forces fighting alongside AMISOM, thus contributing to our shared goal of quelling terrorism in the country and the region. Italy has also contributed engineers to the EU Operation in the Central African Republic in support of the African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic, and subsequently the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic. Politically, Italy has always upheld the role of the African Union and its structures. We have contributed to the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel and to the Panel of the Wise, and we are glad to be in the process of granting new contributions. We have also encouraged and promoted cooperation between the African Union and African subregional organizations. In the Horn of Africa, for instance, the synergies between the action of the African Union and that of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, also strongly supported by Italy, are of the utmost importance for the effort to further consolidate the stabilization processes in the region, such as in South Sudan and Somalia. In the concept note prepared for today’s discussion (S/2014/879, annex), some specific questions are posed on how we can overcome the challenges that the African Union-United Nations partnership still faces. We trust that the peace operations review recently launched by the Secretary-General will offer an answer to those questions. More generally, we hope that the review will provide some innovative and much-needed food for thought. The reality on the ground has clearly shown the need to update the United Nations peace and security architecture. A holistic approach is necessary in order to take into account all of the various phases of conflicts. The nature of the attacks against civilians and Blue Helmets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Darfur and Mali also demands more robust mandates as well as more modern equipment and appropriate training. In consideration of the added value of unmanned aerial vehicles, we urge the High-level Independent Panel to Review Peacekeeping Operations to further explore the use of modern technologies in peace operations, while keeping in mind the concerns retained by part of the membership about the matter. Italy is ready to further engage in initiatives such as the Centre of Excellence for Stability Police Units in Vicenza, which is led by our Carabinieri. It provides effective training and skills, mostly to African police officers. We also intend to heighten collaboration between the Italian Army’s Military Academy and the United Nations System Staff College, both in Turin. During the Italian presidency of the European Council, working together with Germany and in close collaboration with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, we hosted a series of seminars, here and in Europe, on European Union-United Nations cooperation in crisis management. They were important occasions to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation by talking about lessons learned and the way forward. We hope that the results of that exercise will contribute to the work of the Panel. I would like to conclude by reiterating Italy’s determination to continue its efforts in strengthening relationships among the United Nations, the African Union and other regional organizations and especially, the European Union.

I now give the floor to the representative of Ethiopia.

I wish to warmly congratulate you, Sir, on assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the month of December. I would also like to commend you for taking the initiative to organize this open debate on United Nations-African Union partnership in peace operations. It is indeed a very important and strategic partnership, which has evolved over time in response to the challenges facing Africa in the area of peace and security. I also wish to thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and African Union High Representative for Mali and the Sahel Pierre Buyoya for their insightful briefings. We cannot find words to adequately convey the indignation we feel over the horrendous terrorist act carried out in Pakistan today. We condemn it very strongly. The changing global security landscape after the end of the Cold War and the growing importance of regional and subregional organizations as critical players in peace and security have made it all the more imperative for the United Nations to strengthen its cooperation with those organizations. Certainly, that will require greater appreciation of Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. In that regard, we note the primary role of the United Nations and recognize the role of regional and subregional organizations as first responders to crisis situations in their respective regions. We are pleased to note that the close cooperation and consultation between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) in the promotion and maintenance of peace and security in Africa has been not only strengthened but institutionalized in recent years. Let me take the opportunity to express my appreciation to the Secretary-General for demonstrating his firm commitment to enhancing the strategic partnerships between the United Nations and the African Union and its regional mechanisms in the advancement of peace and security in Africa. In the area of peacekeeping,in particular, the United Nations and the African Union have established various cooperation arrangements to address conflict situations. There is indeed growing recognition that new and emerging challenges confronting Africa cannot be addressed through the prism of traditional peacekeeping doctrine alone. Today, the challenges confronting our peacekeepers, 70 per cent of whom are deployed in Africa, include fighting terrorists in Somalia and Mali, combating negative forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, protecting civilians in the face of institutional collapse in the Central African Republic and South Sudan and assisting communities to continue to coexist in harmony in Abyei. Those are but a few examples that illustrate that peacekeepers are expected to shoulder responsibilities well beyond the traditional mandates of peacekeeping operations. The evolving situation therefore dictates the adoption of innovative and flexible approaches by the United Nations and the African Union based on the principles of complementarity and comparative advantages in the overall context of the United Nations collective security framework. The African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur and the African Union Mission in Somalia, supported by the United Nations logistical package, the Intervention Brigade in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the protection force in South Sudan could be cited as examples in that regard. Building on those and other experiences is absolutely critical for strengthening United Nations-AU cooperation at the strategic and operational levels. We hope that the High-level Independent Panel to Review Peacekeeping Operations, which will review peacekeeping in all its aspects, will reflect upon that issue seriously. Over the years, the African Union and its various regional mechanisms have demonstrated their political commitment and readiness to respond immediately to crisis situations, if and when they arise. However, challenges abound, particularly with respect to adequate financial and logistical support for peace operations. It is certain that the issue carries serious implications for African-led peace operations with respect to the full and effective discharge of their mandates. It is time to find a lasting solution to that critical issue, which now enjoys only ad hoc arrangements. It is perhaps time for the United Nations to scale up support to the AU by providing comprehensive and multidimensional support to United Nations peace operations, in line with its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Finally, while we are pleased with the significant progress made thus far in the cooperation between the United Nations and the AU in the area of peacekeeping, we are nonetheless of the view that much is still needed in the light of both the complex challenges we all face and the opportunities available for even greater cooperation in support of regional and global peace and security. It requires further enhancing of the strategic partnership between the two organizations in order to meet the challenges of today. Ethiopia has been a major contributor to both United Nations-led and AU-led peace operations. Today, close to 12,000 Ethiopian peacekeepers are deployed in Somalia, Darfur, Abyei and South Sudan under the United Nations and AU umbrella. I wish to conclude my remarks by reaffirming our full commitment to much more expanded and effective cooperation between the United Nations and the AU for regional and international peace and security.

I now give the floor to the representative of Uganda.

Uganda appreciates the presence of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Chad, presiding over this relevant and important debate, as well as the statements of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President Buyoya, who is currently African Union High Representative for Mali and the Sahel. Uganda hereby presents its profound condolences to the people of Pakistan for the barbaric murder of its school children by the Taliban. In the same vein, we further extend our condolences to other countries that have experienced similar killings in the month, including Nigeria, Australia and Kenya. That event serves to highlight the relevance of this open debate. Allow me also to express our sincere appreciation for the President’s able stewardship of the business of the Security Council during the month of December. Uganda expresses its appreciation for the President’s selection of this relevant topic for discussion at this open debate. This is indeed a good way to place Africa  — our marginal continent in global political and economic terms  — at the centre of the Security Council’s agenda, especially as about 70 per cent of the Council’s work focuses on Africa. At the cornerstone of Uganda’s foreign policy is the idea that subregional and regional organizations have to play the primary role in addressing the concerns of their particular geopolitical areas, with the Security Council and the international community performing a complementary supportive role guided by international law. With that fruition of that particular thinking being well exemplified through the conclusion, for example, of the Burundi peace process and the 1999 Lusaka Peace Accord, subregional and regional organizations, as a norm, tend to be well versed on the issues behind local or regional conflicts — and hence their appropriateness in getting them resolved. We are of the view that the Security Council should normally intervene in resolving local conflicts in a framework that is supportive of the subregional and regional efforts I have mentioned. It is with that thinking and spirit that, through initial African Union sanctioning, Uganda contributed troops to the effort to bring about peace in Somalia in 2007. It is critical to add that this took place with the Security Council’s concurrent sanction for the intervention. Burundi, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone are the other troop contributors to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), while Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Sierra Leone have also contributed police officers to Somalia. When Uganda joined the Security Council for the period for 2009-2010, we joined hands with other non-permanent members and permanent members of this critical United Nations organ to ensure that it accepted to offer logistical support to AMISOM. Among other things, that included the provision by the United Nations of hospitals, vehicles, troops, armour and rations for the Mission’s troops. The symbiotic AMISOM relationship between the African Union (AU) and the United Nations requires further consolidation, for peace in Somalia translates into peace in the region, the western Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. As a way forward, the conditions that cause conflict  — for instance, the burden of being landlocked  — need to be meaningfully addressed by the Security Council and the global community. On the infamous Berlin partition of Africa, as a continent Africa has a disproportionate number of landlocked countries, many of which — the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Mali and South Sudan  — are extremely underdeveloped and conflict-prone. Conflict in such a setting does not occur by mere bad luck. During next year’s joint review of AMISOM there will be a need to factor in the capacity-building of the forces for peace, in addition to obtaining the Security Council’s commitment to build Somalia’s State structures and economy. A similar framework will also need to be provided for South Sudan, the Central African Republic and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The creation of State structures is important to ensuring that there is stability and that terrorist groups cannot take refuge in that kind of setting.

I now give the floor to the representative of Tunisia.

I should like at the outset to offer our condolences to Pakistan following this morning’s horrendous attack on a school in Peshawar. I would like to congratulate Chad on the occasion of its accession to the presidency of the Security Council for this month. I also thank you, Mr. President, for your initiative to convene this debate, which provides an opportunity for a constructive exchange on ways to further strengthen cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union in the context of peacekeeping and international security, characterized by numerous challenges, the proliferation of crises and multifaceted threats. We cannot but welcome the increase in recent years of the number of Security Council meetings devoted to the partnership between the African Union and the United Nations. It clearly reflects measheightened awareness and a commitment to working jointly to meet the peace and security challenges facing that Africa through the building and strengthening of a strong and innovative partnership between the African Union and the United Nations. The experience of judicious cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, led by the African Union, demonstrates the foresight, wisdom and pioneering vision of the authors of the Charter of the United Nations, who decided to include Chapter VIII, recourse to which is nowadays indispensable to the maintenance of international peace and security. This resurgence of Chapter VIII as an instrument to promote the participation of regional and subregional organizations in the establishment and building of peace and security not only strengthens the universal character of the Charter, but also gives regional organizations a growing role in the management of crises and post-conflict stages. With this in mind, we welcome the leading role played by the African Union in the implementation of the African Peace and Security Architecture. Despite the weakness of its material and financial resources, Africa has managed to deploy African peacekeeping missions of peace in the Sudan, Darfur, Somalia, Mali and the Central African Republic. These missions have undoubtedly contributed to the improvement and evolution of African-led peacekeeping operations, while generating organic and even strategic links between the African Union and the United Nations, which are especially important in light of the fact that the continent is the focus of a majority of the activities of the United Nations and hence of the Security Council’s work. Today, 50 per cent of peacekeeping operations, 80 per cent of Blue Helmets and 70 per cent of the peacekeeping budget are devoted to Africa. The new cooperation mechanisms that are being put in place between the United Nations and the African Union, such as the annual meetings between the United Nations Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council contribute greatly to defining the guidelines and common approaches for responding to complex and multifaceted crises, civil wars, rebellions, terrorism and crime, as well as to the ongoing evolution of peacekeeping. This close partnership, based on the comparative advantages of each organization, strengthens the resilience of both organizations to new threats and to the demands of the rapidly changing realities on the ground. Innovative arrangements — such as the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur and the transformation of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali into the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, and of the African-led International Support Mission for the Central African Republic into the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic — illustrates the flexible approach that now prevails at the United Nations and the African Union. In that context, we welcome the Secretary-General’s initiative for an a overall review of peacekeeping operations and to include in that review, pursuant to resolution 2167 (2014), modalities for transitioning an African mission to a United Nations peacekeeping operation. Similarly, we believe it is appropriate that, next March, the Secretary-General will submit an assessment report and recommendations dealing with partnerships between the United Nations and regional organizations in peacekeeping operations. My country, which is involved in a number of peacekeeping operations in Africa as a troop-contributing country — the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, among others  — welcomes these various transitions and adaptations of peacekeeping operations and their immediate impact on the ground. Nevertheless, we support further consideration with regard to the lessons learned from experiences acquired during the transition of operations from the African Union to United Nations peacekeeping operations, with a view to improving the conditions necessary for such transitions and to avoid delays, which are sometimes too long, in deploying a new peacekeeping operation. It is crucial to rapidly deploy contingents, peacekeeping staff and support staff for reconstruction. It is equally important to consider the possibility of establishing a system of standby forces and capacities in order to rapidly intervene when crises occur. That should be based on an early-warning system so that the necessary measures can be taken at the appropriate time. The experience of recent years has shown that the United Nations and the African Union are working, in the framework of their partnership in the area of peacekeeping, towards establishing a solid, effective and innovative peacekeeping architecture based on lessons learned from recent years. However, flexible, sustained and predictable financing for those operations remains a vital precondition for their success. It is highly desirable that we see a more sustained international commitment to financing such operations and to strengthening the operational capacity of the African Union in the areas of conflict prevention, crisis management and post- conflict stabilization.

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