S/PV.7474 Security Council

In accordance with rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of Mali to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2015/481, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by Angola, Chad, France, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Nigeria, Spain, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2015/426, which contains the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Mali. I also wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2015/444, which contains a letter dated 16 June 2015 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council. It is my understanding that the Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now.

The draft resolution received 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2227 (2015). I now give the floor to the representative of Mali.

Allow me at the outset to reiterate the warm congratulations addressed to you, Mr. President, by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, African Integration and International Cooperation, His Excellency Mr. Abdoulaye Diop, when he spoke (see S/PV.7468) in support of the report (S/2015/426) of the Secretary-General on the situation in Mali. Allow me also to reaffirm the gratitude of the people and the Government of Mali, as instructed by the President of the Republic, His Excellency Mr. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, to all those who, directly or indirectly, contributed to the success of the inter-Malian peace process, which officially began in Algiers on 16 July 2014. Today I have the honour of addressing the Security Council on the occasion of the unanimous adoption of resolution 2227 (2015), which, it is worth noting, is primarily focused on the effective and comprehensive implementation of the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali emanating from the Algiers process. The delegation of Mali welcomes the adoption of this resolution under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, the seventieth anniversary of whose signing in San Francisco we have just commemorated. My delegation also welcomes the adoption of this resolution, which is of great political and historical significance and which takes into account the core concerns of the Malian Government, which were expressed from this same rostrum by Minister Diop on 23 June. We are therefore gratified to note that the Security Council, in its great wisdom, has listened to what we had to say and has responded by shaping the new mandate of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) around the effective and comprehensive implementation of the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, with a particular focus on the following priorities: support for the political process and national reconciliation; the strengthening of national ownership of the peace process; support for the re-establishment of the State’s authority and the return of the armed and security forces to the northern regions of Mali; support for the Government’s efforts in the areas of security, stabilization and the protection of civilians; the enactment of targeted sanctions against those who seek to obstruct or prevent the effective and comprehensive implementation of the Peace Agreement; support for security-sector reform, the promotion and protection of human rights and humanitarian assistance; and the strengthening of collaboration and cooperation between the Malian armed forces and MINUSMA, at both the strategic and the operational levels. Similarly, the Government of the Republic of Mali is also grateful to the Security Council for having taken into consideration of the following concerns: the security aspect of the Agreement, including the cantonment and disarmament of armed groups; the operationalization of the battalions that are intended to serve as the rapid-reaction force within MINUSMA; the operationalization on the ground of the resources made available to increase the effectiveness of MINUSMA; the use of all available means to prevent and counteract the threats posed by and the return of terrorist groups, narco-jihadists and other forces hostile to the implementation of the Agreement; the requirement for the armed groups that are signatories of the Agreement to distance themselves from the activities of terrorist and narco-jihadist groups; the requirement that troop-contributing countries ensure that their contingents have the appropriate equipment; the strengthening of cooperation between MINUSMA and the Barkhane force in the fight against terrorism; and the operationalization of the monitoring committee of the Agreement. Against that backdrop, it is clear that resolution 2227 (2015) endorses the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, which is the result of eight months of intensive inter-Malian negotiations in the context of the Algiers process. It would be regrettable, therefore, if all of the joint efforts made were to be jeopardized by the enemies of peace, who have been ramping up their terrorist activities all over our country since the signing of the Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, in Bamako. This is evidenced by the terrorist attacks perpetrated on 27 and 28 June, which targeted, respectively, the Nara military camp, just 30 kilometres from the Mauritanian border, and the city of Fakoula, in the south of the country. Faced with those attacks, the Government of the Republic of Mali reiterates its call to all parties that are signatories to the Agreement and to the international community to dovetail their efforts and pool their intelligence so as to rid their national territory of a common enemy, namely, terrorist and narco-jihadist groups, which seek only to fulfil their criminal goals by means of fear and terror. I should like here to express our solidarity and compassion with Chad, France, Tunisia, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Belgium, and with all victims of terrorism. It would be remiss of me to conclude without reiterating the determination of the Government of Mali to honour the commitments it shouldered under the Bamako Agreement and to work in an inclusive manner with all Malian stakeholders to ensure that the process is Malian-owned, including by civil society. In that respect, over the next few days the Government will establish a national mechanism for the implementation of the Agreement. Finally, I would like to urgently appeal to the international community to continue its support and to honour its commitments with a view to ensuring the effective, speedy and comprehensive implementation of the Bamako Agreement.