S/PV.7816 Security Council

In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the following briefers to participate in this meeting: Mr. E1-Ghassim Wane, Assistant Secretary- General for Peacekeeping Operations; His Excellency Mr. Téte António, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations; Mr. Haile Menkerios, Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the African Union; and His Excellency Mr. Donald Kaberuka, African Union High Representative for the Peace Fund. In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I also invite His Excellency Mr. João Vale de Almeida, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations, 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 participants to document S/2016/780, which contains the report of the Secretary-General on strengthening the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union on issues of peace and security in Africa, including the work of the United Nations Office to the African Union, as well as to document S/2016/809, which contains identical letters dated 22 September 2016 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the General Assembly and the President of the Security Council. I wish to also draw the attention of Council members to document S/2016/966, which contains a letter dated 10 November 2016 from the Permanent Representative of Senegal to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, transmitting a concept note on the item under consideration. I now give the floor to Mr. Wane.

On behalf of Under- Secretary-General Hervé Ladsous, I would like to thank the Senegalese presidency for convening this very timely discussion. I must also admit, as a former staff member of the African Union Commission, where I worked for over 20 years, that I feel particularly honoured and grateful to be able to brief the Security Council on a subject of vital importance not only for Africa but also for our system of collective security. It is an issue on which I have been working diligently throughout my entire career within the African Union (AU), and obviously I feel strongly committed to the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union, because I firmly believe that there is no alternative to a close partnership between the two organizations. In the context of my new functions at the United Nations, I am grateful to be able to contribute towards strengthening that partnership. Once again, I thank, you, Mr. Minister, for having taken the initiative of convening this very timely meeting. (spoke in English) I would like to begin by making several statements of fact. First, the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union on peace and security is not new and has grown into a strategic partnership — a stronger partnership based on an innovative and forward- looking reading of Chapter VIII of Charter of the United Nations. Today’s debate will, without any doubt, contribute to that partnership. Mr. Ladsous addressed the Security Council during the open debate (see S/PV.7694) last May to measure the progress achieved in strengthening the partnership in the area of peace and security on the continent. That debate took place on the tenth anniversary of the beginning of annual consultations between the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council. The Secretary-General has repeatedly underscored that strengthening global and regional partnerships is absolutely critical, especially in Africa. His report (S/2016/780) on the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union, which Special Representative Haile Menkerios will present shortly, is testimony to the mutual efforts made over the years towards building the strategic relationship between the two organizations. The relationship between the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council is also of primary importance. I note that both Councils now meet annually in New York and Addis Ababa. While further harmonization of efforts could be still further encouraged, it is unanimously acknowledged that there are plenty of areas of common interest for the African Union and the United Nations to work on together. The Secretariat and African Union Commission have also enhanced their cooperation at the strategic level — through the Joint Task Force, which meets twice a year, and through the annual desk-to-desk meetings, the next one of which is scheduled for December in Addis Ababa. That also includes monthly director-level video tele-conferences and daily working-level interactions. In an innovative move, AU Peace and Security Council experts will be hosted later this month here at Headquarters by the Secretariat for a familiarization visit, with a view to forging better knowledge and understanding of its internal processes. My second point follows logically from the partnership to its operational dimension. In that regard, I would like to mention the considerable progress made in the area of operational support, as was already been highlighted by the report (see S/2015/446) of the High- Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations. For more than 10 years, strong cooperation between the African Union and the United Nations on planning and supporting peace operations has become the norm. That has included experiences relating to transitions from AU operations to United Nations peacekeeping operations, such as in the Central African Republic and Mali, the joint management of hybrid operations in conjunction with the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, and through providing logistical support packages funded through assessed contributions to African Union-led missions, such as the African Union Mission in Somalia. In assessing the 13-year history of cooperation at the operational level, the September report (S/2016/809) entitled “Report of the joint African Union-United Nations review of available mechanisms to finance and support African Union peace support operations authorized by the United Nations Security Council” provides Member States with the first comprehensive account of mechanisms used in the past and still readily available, as well as more general concluding observations on key lessons learned. I wish to draw the Council’s attention to the fact that two out of the five concluding observations from the report relate to the need for the United Nations to adapt to the increasing complexity of the security challenges that the international community is facing, particularly in Africa, either in its own interventions or in support of African Union peace support operations. I would like to cite several statistics to illustrate the importance of Africa for peacekeeping, and vice versa. Nine out of 16 of the United Nations peacekeeping missions are deployed in Africa. Those missions alone account for 83 per cent of all uniformed personnel and 86 per cent of the financial resources approved for United Nations peacekeeping missions. As of July, African States represented 20 of the top 30 contributors of uniformed personnel to United Nations peacekeeping operations. Approximately 50 per cent of all uniformed peacekeepers come from African Union member States. This brings me to my third point. The complexity of the current conflicts in Africa and the trends observed highlight the need to strengthen further the United Nations operational cooperation with and in support of African Union peace support operations. In doing so, we ought to be pragmatic and results-oriented, driven, as we should be, by the imperative to respond to the needs on the ground, assist countries and shattered communities to turn the page of violence and conflict, and consolidate peace where it has been achieved. This, in our view, reinforces the calls made several times in the past by the Council and by the African Union Peace and Security Council to seek ways to ensure predictable, flexible and sustainable financing for African Union peace support operations authorized by the Security Council. In his report dated 2 September 2015 on the future of United Nations peace operations (S/2015/682), the Secretary-General commended the African Union’s commitment to self-reliance, including to financing 25 per cent of future African Union peace operations. He then urged Member States to give urgent consideration to how the United Nations can respond to that initiative. On 18 July, the Secretary-General welcomed the historic decision taken by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Kigali, setting out concrete steps towards self-reliance, particularly in relation to the AU peace and security budget. Today’s debate is an opportunity for Member States to initiate a response. In so doing, they will enhance the role of the United Nations and strengthen the regional response. For our part, we in the Secretariat will continue to work closely with the African Union so as to generate, as much as possible, harmonized approaches between the Secretariat and the Commission. For this purpose, we will naturally rely on our Office to the African Union, which I should like to commend for its central role in strengthening the partnership between the African Union and the United Nations. Having worked with the Office in Addis Ababa in connection with my former responsibilities at the African Union Commission, I can testify to the quality and the strength of the contribution that the Office is making to the relationship between the African Union and the United Nations. Whatever efforts can be made to enhance the capacity and resources of the Commission are of course welcome steps towards a stronger partnership between the two organizations. It may sometimes seem simpler for each organization to work on its own given the obstacles that may surface as soon as concrete steps towards closer cooperation are contemplated. The tendency has often been to highlight the challenges rather than innovative mechanisms for cooperation, but it is, rather, such innovation that we need to encourage and spur in order to circumvent these challenges. Whatever the challenges in the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union, and this is my final observation, there is in fact no alternative to a stronger partnership. There is now a clear recognition of the fact that no single organization can effectively address on its own the increasingly complex, multifaceted peace and security challenges of today, as noted by the Secretary-General in his report dated January 2012. Our only option is to overcome these challenges. While the United Nations has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the African Union is one of our most important partners in confronting common challenges in Africa. It has also expressed a willingness to play a role in, and has put efforts into, building the peace and security architecture. The path to the future is therefore one of innovation, creativity and pragmatism. Let me once again sincerely thank Senegal for having convened this meeting and also thank the members of the Council for their continued commitment to a stronger partnership between the United Nations and the African Union in our joint efforts to address the peace and security challenges confronting us on the African continent.

I thank Mr. Wane for his briefing. I now give the floor to Mr. António.

On behalf of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, I wish to pay tribute to you, Mr. Minister, for having taken the time to travel to New York in order personally to preside over this important Security Council debate. I should also like to pay tribute to your country, Senegal, whose presidency has focused in particular on the issue of strategic cooperation between regional organizations and the United Nations, with specific attention devoted to the African Union (AU). (spoke in English) Numerous reports have highlighted the fact that the current international peace and security architecture is under significant pressure given the complexity of the peace and security challenges that the world faces today. The complexity of today’s crises is likely only to increase, placing ever-greater demands on this architecture. Forging an effective partnership between the United Nations and the African Union is therefore of the greatest strategic importance to our collective security. The African Union’s proven ability to act as first responder is a critical element of the evolving international peace and security architecture. Since the establishment of the Union in 2002, the AU and the subregional organizations have demonstrated a clear comparative advantage in two particular types of situations: first, in missions where offensive operations are needed and the United Nations is unable to deploy forces in a timely manner; and, secondly, where the Security Council is unable to mobilize the requisite political consensus to initiate action. The AU has blazed a path in its deployment of missions to Burundi, Darfur, Somalia, Mali and the Central African Republic. However, while the AU has the mandate, experience and political will to deploy rapidly in order to deliver in these cases, it is unable to sustain such missions over the medium to long term because it lacks sufficient means. For this reason, in 2015 the African Union Heads of State and Government made a commitment at the twenty-fourth ordinary session of the Assembly to finance 25 percent of the cost of AU- led peace-support operations from AU member States’ assessed contributions. This decision was reaffirmed at the twenty-fifth ordinary session of the Assembly and culminated in the Assembly’s financing decision in July this year, at the Kigali Summit. Against this background, the AU has consistently argued for predictable and sustainable financing through United Nations assessed contributions for AU- led peace operations that the United Nations cannot itself undertake but that are regarded as critical to the maintenance of international peace and security. The AU’s view is that in deploying such missions, it is doing so on behalf of the Security Council, which retains primary responsibility for the maintenance of international security in accordance with the United Nations Charter. There is general agreement that the current financing arrangements for AU-led peace-support operations are neither reliable nor predictable, especially in the context of high- tempo combat operations. While partners have demonstrated much flexibility and innovation — and I wish to take this opportunity to express the profound appreciation of the African Union for the support of our partners — there is nonetheless a consensus that the current financing arrangements continue to be unsustainable. That is borne out by current experience as partners, facing their own financial pressures back home, are forced to cut back on the support provided, most notably to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). In that respect, the recommendations of the High- level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO), which are consistent with the Common African Position of the AU itself, are pertinent. In particular, it will be recalled that the HIPPO report (see S/2015/446) recommended that “United Nations-assessed contributions be provided on a case-by-case basis to support African Union peace support operations authorized by the Security Council” (S/2015/446, para. 249 (a)). It should be noted that the joint African Union-United Nations review of available mechanisms to finance and support AU peace-support operations authorized by the Security Council concluded that access to United Nations-assessed contributions had provided a reliable, predictable and sustainable means of financing AU peace-support operations. From that perspective, we can all agree that it is critical that African Union peace-support operations authorized by the Security Council be given the necessary support to effectively address increasingly complex mandates in increasingly challenging environments. The evidence also shows that both the United Nations and the AU have already shown considerable innovation and pragmatism in identifying modalities to provide financial and materiel support to AU missions, including through assessed contributions in specific cases. It also shows that access to United Nations-assessed contributions provides the greatest predictability and sustainability for certain types of missions. Agreement on the principle that United Nations- assessed contributions could be made available to support United Nations-authorized AU-led peace-support operations is therefore not a new proposition. It is already being implemented in the case of AMISOM, albeit in an ad hoc and partial manner. The fact that we are having this debate on that critical question today demonstrates that there is the strategic imperative and the collective political will to move away from ad hoc financing arrangements to a partnership based on greater predictability, mutual accountability and the two organizations’ respective authorities, competencies and capacities. The detailed proposals in the report of the AU High Representative for the Peace Fund, known as the Kaberuka report, provide a solid foundation for the evolution of the strategic AU-United Nations partnership in the area of peacekeeping. This is a necessary evolution that will only enhance the overall effectiveness of our international peace and security architecture. We appreciate and recognize the fact that there is much detail to be worked out over the coming months, and we are confident that our two institutions can quickly establish a joint process to develop more detailed implementation modalities to move us towards a substantive framework draft resolution on predictable financing for AU- led peace-support operations in 2017. We will need to think deeply about the nature of the missions that could benefit from that type of support from the United Nations. It is clear that broader partnerships will still be required to support the AU in that complex area, but the AU-United Nations partnership will remain a central pillar. I would like to conclude by encouraging all Council members to support the adoption of the draft resolution under consideration, which, among other things, expresses the Security Council’s willingness to consider how such a partnership could be realized and identifies the tasks to be completed by the United Nations Secretariat and the African Union Commission to take the process forward. We also wish to recall that this is an issue that has been on the agenda of the African Union since 2007, having emerged initially through the difficult experience of the African Union Mission in the Sudan, which had to transition into the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur as a result of the AU lacking the funds to sustain the Mission. Experience has clearly shown that the lack of financial support for AU missions has had a direct impact on the overall success of those missions and subsequent United Nations missions, since the AU is forced to transition to United Nations missions prematurely. Greater predictability would allow the AU to properly stabilize the situation before handing matters over to a United Nations mission, which could be in the best interests of the AU, the United Nations and peace and security in general. The international system is going through a period of profound reassessment, as old certainties are being questioned and new fault lines of conflict emerge, linked to growing inequality, migration, climate change and governance issues, among other things. The United Nations cannot, on its own, adequately respond to those challenges; therefore, partnerships with regional organizations such as the African Union will only grow in importance. It is therefore vital that we work to ensure that together we put in place the appropriate architecture to meet those weighty challenges.

I thank Mr. António for his briefing. I now give the floor to Mr. Menkerios. Mr. Menkerios: I would like to begin by expressing, on behalf of the Secretary-General, my profound appreciation to the Senegalese presidency of the Security Council for convening this important debate on the topic of cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations in maintaining international peace and security, including the African Union (AU). The presence at this debate of His Excellency Mr. Mankeur Ndiaye, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Senegal, is an illustration of the importance that your country, Sir, and the Security Council attach to the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union. In September, the Secretary-General issued his first report (S/2016/780) on strengthening the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union on issues of peace and security in Africa, including the work of the United Nations Office to the African Union. In that report, the Secretary-General notes that “[t]here is an urgent need for new and stronger ways to address international peace and security challenges. Stronger partnerships with regional organizations, in particular with the African Union, can enable us to respond early, swiftly, coherently and decisively to prevent and manage conflict.” (S/2016/780, para. 58) On 29 September, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union held a briefing on strengthening the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union on issues of peace and security in Africa, which I was invited to address on behalf of the Secretary-General, and the Peace and Security Council subsequently issued a communiqué that welcomed the report of the Secretary-General and commended the significant progress achieved in the AU-United Nations partnership in the past five years. In order to strengthen it further, the Peace and Security Council called for a more systematic, predictable and strategic partnership between the two organizations. It should also be recalled that the Security Council and the General Assembly have repeatedly called for stronger engagement between the United Nations, the African Union and the regionaleconomic communities in conflict prevention, management and resolution in Africa. Indeed, the principle of partnership with regional organizations is enshrined in Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. Article 3 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union also encourages international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the United Nations. As the Council is well aware, the conflicts that we face in Africa today have grown in scale and complexity, thereby posing a greater threat to international peace and security. Those conflicts cause intolerable loss of life and widespread destruction of resources, desperate humanitarian situations and unimaginable human suffering. We have witnessed the erosion of political and civic rights, while economies regress and social development gains are reversed. Terrorism and violent extremism, transnational organized crime, piracy and other threats to maritime security, as well as threats caused by weak or ineffective governance institutions, electoral disputes and political and economic exclusion, are some of the challenges that African countries face. Poverty, unemployment, demographic pressures and climate change are also increasingly having an impact on their peace and security. Dealing with such complex threats is not an easy feat. While the Security Council has the ultimate responsibility for international peace and security and has invested greatly in addressing those threats in Africa, and the AU and its regional economic communities continue to exert every effort to do the same on the continent, it is clear that neither the United Nation, nor the AU or the regional economic communities can address those threats by acting separately. Collaboration between the United Nations and the AU and the communities is an absolute necessity. Increased collaboration between the United Nations, the AU and regional economic communities in addressing conflicts throughout the past decade has produced a large body of practice, particularly in the area of peace operations and mediation. I am pleased to note that the United Nations Secretariat and the African Union Commission are making good progress in strengthening cooperation and collaboration between the two organizations. We have better coordinated interventions, for instance in the Sudan and South Sudan, where the African Union High-level Implementation Panel, led by former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, has ably led mediation efforts with the support of the United Nations Special Envoy and many other partners. Another example is Burundi, where both the United Nations and the African Union support the efforts of the East African Community facilitator, former President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania. In addition, we have daily working-level interactions, weekly and monthly meetings at various levels, including via a video teleconference link between both headquarters, and the Joint Task Force of senior United Nations Secretariat and African Union Commission leadership twice a year. In peace-support operations, the United Nations continues to support the African Union Commission’s efforts to manage and operationalize African-led peace operations mandated by the African Union Peace and Security Council and authorized by the United Nations Security Council. They range from the African Union’s engagement in Somalia to the Multinational Joint Task Force initiative against Boko Haram and the Regional Task Force’s engagement against the Lord’s Resistance Army. Our collaboration also includes supporting the AU as the first responder in crises such as those in the Central African Republic and Mali. A review of the United Nations-African Union partnership so far, which is characterized by an expanding series of ad hoc collaborative engagements, amply demonstrates that it is time that the two organizations move towards a more structured, systematic and predictable partnership — in short, a strategic partnership. We should not have to reinvent the wheel every time we face a new conflict on the continent. A structured, systematic and predictable partnership would mean that mechanisms are in place and working in both organizations to ensure joint early and continuous engagement, from early warning and conflict prevention to mediation and peace-support operations to post-conflict reconstruction and development. Instead of the two organizations engaging in a series of ad hoc engagements, they would need to adopt predictable and structured processes to address threats to international peace and security in the continent, based on common principles and burden-sharing that takes into account comparative advantages. I must emphasize the value of the United Nations Secretariat and the African Union Commission undertaking joint assessment and analysis of emerging and current conflict situations, developing coherent strategies for conflict prevention or any other form of conflict management or resolution and providing the relevant facts, interpretations and proposals to the two Councils. The two Councils are, as a result, more likely to decide on common approaches that promote collaborative engagement. Although the Security Council will always address each conflict on a case-by-case basis, there is more that the United Nations Secretariat and the African Union Commission can do to bring a level of predictability and sustainability to managing peace operations in this manner. The conclusion of a joint framework for enhanced partnership between the United Nations and the African Union, which already exists in draft form, can potentially institutionalize and further strengthen the strategic partnership between the two organizations. The United Nations Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council of course play pivotal roles in strengthening the strategic partnership between the United Nations and the African Union in the area of peace and security. There has been significant progress over the past few years in strengthening collaboration between the two Councils. The tenth consultative meeting between the two Councils, held in New York in May, provided an opportunity for a constructive and candid exchange of views. The recent joint meeting of the Councils to discuss South Sudan, which took place in September in Addis Ababa, is also an indication of the progress that has been made over the past few years. The three African members of the Security Council play an important role in strengthening and facilitating Security Council and African Union Peace and Security Council relations. I firmly believe that, if the two organizations were to adopt a structured and predictable partnership, that would tremendously facilitate and enhance such engagement. The decisions of the African Union Summit in Kigali in July on financing the AU and the Peace Fund should provide the means for Africa to finance a greater share of its conflict-prevention and mediation initiatives, as well as peace-support operations. I strongly believe that the implementation of those proposals will strengthen the United Nations-African Union partnership, because a stronger African Union will be a more effective partner for the United Nations. The 2016 African Union Summit decisions on financing must therefore be welcomed and positively responded to within the context of the strategic partnership proposed. Predictable and sustainable funding remains a major challenge for the African Union, particularly in the three focus areas of the Peace Fund, namely, conflict prevention, capacity-building and peace operations. The adoption of a strategic partnership and the implementation of AU proposals in that context would enable the United Nations and the African Union to engage more effectively and exercise our comparative advantages so as to address conflicts and sustain peace in Africa. Importantly, the proposals on financing the AU and the Peace Fund also envisage a governance mechanism for the Peace Fund to ensure strong accountability and management systems, which are necessary in order to build the confidence of African Union member States and partners. The Finance Ministers of the African Union have decided on an implementation phase for those proposals throughout 2017. While the full details are still being outlined, we believe we should commend the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government for their political commitment, and be prepared to provide technical support, as required and if requested. The United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) is the conduit through which the United Nations can enhance the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union in peace and security matters. Under the guidance of the Secretary- General and in collaboration with the United Nations departments responsible for peace and security, UNOAU will continue its close interaction with the African Union Commission and AU member States, so as to build understanding and enhance communication between the two organizations. As stated earlier, UNOAU will also continue to conduct joint horizon-scanning exercises and develop joint analysis and early warning with the AU, with a view to developing common understanding and action on conflict-prevention, mediation and peacekeeping. UNOAU will also continue to support the institutional strengthening of the AU Commission, as required, so as to make the partnership more effective and assist the AU in delivering on its mandates for the common purpose. Strengthening the partnership requires intensifying our day-to-day engagement aimed at sharing views and analyses, seeking common understanding of the issues and developing proposals for joint or coordinated action to address them. It involves reaching out to the whole of the United Nations and the African Union in order to ensure that both organizations draw on all the relevant contributions and, as much as possible, ensure coherence. We look forward to the continued support of the Security Council to ensure that UNOAU is adequately resourced so that it can effectively fulfil its mandate. The Secretary-General stated in his report on strengthening the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union on issues of peace and security in Africa, including the work of the United Nations Office to the African Union, that he plans “to conduct an assessment of United Nations- African Union cooperation, including the structure and resource capacity of the UNOAU to meet the growing demands of the partnership.” (S/2016/780, paragraph 57) We call on the Council to support his plan. I wish to thank you once again, Mr. President, for convening this meeting and for inviting us to make this statement. Through you, Sir, we thank all Security Council members for their continued commitment to peace and security in Africa and for their support for our common effort. I also wish to place on record our appreciation to the AU Commission, specifically the Peace and Security Department and the Political Affairs Department, for their strong and steadfast support to the consolidation of our practical collaboration.

I now give the floor to Mr. Kaberuka. Mr. Kaberuka: It is an honour and a privilege to be here for this important debate. I would like to thank the presidency of Senegal and His Excellency Mr. Mankeur Ndiaye, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad, for his leadership. I thank the membership of the Council for the invitation to make a contribution with a special emphasis on the emerging architecture of the African Union (AU) for financing peace and security. Peace and stability is the prerequisite for socioeconomic development in a continent that has begun to turn a corner and has demonstrated a new dynamism after years of economic decline. Several speakers have already referred to a number of high- level reports that have established three very important facts. First, the crises that the world faces today are often so complex that no one single organization is able to provide the needed response. Secondly, regional organizations bring a comparative advantage to the table. Thirdly, there is a need for financing mechanisms that are predictable and sustainable, rather than voluntary and ad hoc. A well-funded African Peace and Security Architecture is not simply an African priority, it is a global strategic imperative. When the African Union came into being it was determined to address the root causes of conflicts, and it instituted a Peace and Security Architecture to that end. It also adopted a vision to silence the guns by 2020. However, even long before that, the Organization of African Unity, the precursor to the African Union, had put in place a mechanism to finance its peace activities, mainly in the form of upstream preventive diplomacy and, occasionally, a few stabilization missions pending the maturation of a global response. That was the idea behind the setting up of the Peace Fund established over 20 years ago in 1993. That was the time when Africa was beginning to confront major crises, to which the global community was not always in a position to respond in a timely manner. Nonetheless, despite the goodwill, the deep economic crises of the day and the proliferation of crises in subsequent years led to a situation where the Fund fell short of its objectives. The limited resources of the Fund were quickly overwhelmed by the needs, thereby hampering the organization’s ability to manage continental peace and security priorities. It is opportune here to highlight and appreciate the support provided by the international community, bilateral partners, regional organizations and the United Nations, as well as the innovative ways in which that was done, including through United Nations-managed trust funds. There have sometimes been frustrations on both sides, and lessons have been learned that will no doubt inform the future. Early this year, the leadership of the African Union appointed a Special Envoy with the mandate to develop ideas and proposals on how the African Union could revitalize the Peace Fund. As that Envoy, I was requested to put forward ideas on how the facility could be funded, structured and governed for the challenges of today in a much more predictable way that would avoid overreliance on multiple unpredictable funding channels. It is important to emphasize that, while the Union’s members were seeking to undertake that initiative in a spirit of greater ownership and reduced dependence on ad hoc voluntary and unpredictable external sources, they also conceived of the Fund as a means to strengthen and provide the international community with a more effective tool for partnerships. At the AU Assembly of Heads of States and Government held in Kigali in July, the Union’s leadership deliberated on the revitalization of the Peace Fund and took a number of key decisions. The conclusions reached were by consensus and sought to reflect the principles of self-reliance, solidarity, ability to pay, equitable burden-sharing, greater compliance and predictability. The Fund will focus on four main priorities: first, on preventive diplomacy, as experience has shown that that is by far the most cost-effective way to maintain peace, which in the case of the AU would be around $35 million per year, a modest but very effective expenditure; secondly, on institutional capacity to address institutional gaps in the implementation of the Fund, estimated at $30 million per year; thirdly, on peace-support operations, when that becomes necessary and appropriate and as approved by the competent AU organs; and, fourthly, on a crisis-reserve facility to enable the AU to respond to the rapid onset of crises in a timely manner. I want to emphasize that it is on the third priority — peace-support operations — and that priority alone that the AU is seeking support and cooperation from the United Nations through assessed contributions for Security Council-authorized, but AU- led, operations. A number of scenarios were considered as to what financial commitment that translates into, given the unpredictable nature of such undertakings. Those scenarios are being shared with the competent United Nations and AU administrative organs. African Union members fully appreciate that getting the Fund fully operational is a complex task at the technical, administrative and political levels. Nevertheless, that task is under way. An implementation mechanism is in place, led by 10 Finance Ministers. We have agreed to phase in the mechanism, using 2017 as a transition year, so as to allow countries to go through the legal, fiscal and institutional mechanisms and to ensure compliance with national requirements and international obligations. As far as cooperation with the United Nations is concerned, both sides appreciate that there is much work to be done by both organizations to refine the ways in which that cooperation should be realized, including the consideration of a number of scenarios to define, first, what the 25 per cent African contribution would imply and, secondly, under what conditions the 75 per cent United Nations contributions would be requested. Both the African Union and the United Nations fully appreciate what that would mean in terms of the administrative, fiduciary and governance angles, including full compliance with AU and United Nations norms as well as international obligations. The recent joint review by the two organizations has provided further lessons for reflection. There is a need for further innovation and mutual learning. However, African countries are determined to take ownership of the maintenance of peace and stability on the continent. Today the world faces threats that cannot be confined to a particular geographical area, and it is critical to have all hands on deck. The African Peace Fund provides a robust mechanism and unified governance and reporting lines to deal with the numerous channels that complicate accountability and the frameworks that raise transaction costs and reduce effectiveness for all. As the United Nations Security Council considers a strengthened partnership between the two organizations, I hope members will agree that the revitalized AU Peace Fund provides a more coherent framework and a more articulated instrument, through which the continent of Africa and its friends in the international community can work together to promote the cause of peace and stability in Africa and the world.

I thank Mr. Kaberuka for his briefing. I shall now make a statement in my capacity as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad. We have gathered once again to review the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union (AU). We remain convinced of the importance of the strategic partnership, which covers our mutual efforts aimed at maintaining peace and security in Africa. Based on that conviction, the President of the Republic of Senegal, His Excellency Mr. Macky Sall, felt that the matter of strengthening the partnership should be a priority item on the Security Council’s agenda during the Senegalese presidency this month. Today’s debate therefore enables us to reflect on how best to use that cooperation so as to meet the current challenges. That leads me to thank the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations El- Ghassim Wane, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations Téte António, Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the African Union Haile Menkerios, as well as the African Union High Representative for the Peace Fund, Mr. Donald Kaberuka, for their very relevant briefings, which have strongly highlighted the challenges linked to strengthening the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union. I would also like to welcome the continuous commitment of the United States and France to assist African States in seeking solutions to the security challenges facing the continent. The need to bolster cooperation between regional and subregional organizations, in particular the African Union, has been one of the joint recommendations to come out of the various reviews aimed at making United Nations peacekeeping operations more effective. As a strategic partner of the United Nations in the areas of peace and security, the African Union has demonstrated its determination and ability to act as a first responder to African crises. Indeed, the African Union has shown its willingness and ability to provide primary responses to the crises proliferating on the African continent. That means that the African Union has become a major player in collective security and is, furthermore, endeavouring to create a structure for collective security and to strengthen that security by way of the African Peace and Security Architecture, which is a comprehensive tool that seeks in particular to prevent, combat and manage conflicts on the continent. Establishing the African Peace and Security Architecture represents a symbolic expression of the African Union’s genuine desire to tackle issues of peace and security on the continent. That intention is clear, in spite of the number and scope of the difficulties to overcome, and is demonstrated by the adoption of the AU Road Map 2016-2020, which seeks, among other things, to prevent and remove obstacles impeding the full functioning of the African Peace and Security Architecture. The peacekeeping operations of the African Union are local responses to global challenges. Enhancing the partnership between the United Nations and the AU would therefore certainly assist the AU in acquiring the appropriate means to conduct effective action, which is in everyone’s best interests. In that regard, strengthening the partnership at the strategic and operational levels is necessary for greater synergy and coherence, in the light of the evolving security challenges facing the African continent. Analysis indicates that, since its effective implementation in 2004, the AU Peace and Security Council, as well as the mechanisms of the African Peace and Security Architecture, have been active in various crises, in particular those in Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, the Comoros, Darfur and Somalia. However, their actions are often limited by various constraints, especially the crucial issue of financing. The African Union is currently shouldering greater responsibility for peace and security on the continent, and it is troubling to note that the absence of predictable and sustainable financing hampers the potential of the institution. On that matter, in document S/2015/682, entitled, “The future of United Nations peace operations: implementation of the recommendations of the High- level Independent Panel on peace operations”, the Secretary-General acknowledged, and rightly so, that the growing responsibilities of the African Union and the regional economic communities, as well as regional mechanisms, in peace and security are a significant human and financial burden for African countries. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Mission in Guinea-Bissau is relatively symptomatic of the type of difficulties that regional and subregional organizations face in securing predictable and sustainable financing. I thank the European Union for its invaluable contribution to the activities of that ECOWAS Mission. The constraints I just mentioned point to the need to define the channels and ways to share the burden. In other words, the United Nations should better support the laudable efforts of the African Union in handling the crucial issue of the financing of peacekeeping operations, as well as in ensuring the operation of its Peace and Security Architecture. With that in mind, Senegal believes that the United Nations should invest and play a more active role in ensuring the success of African Union activities, as a strategic partner to assist in finding often urgent solutions to shared concerns. That requires, among other things, greater support to the peacekeeping operations of the African Union that are endorsed by the Security Council, as well as through more predictable financing. That type of approach is particularly appropriate, as the African Union has resolutely committed to making significant headway in resolving the issue of predictable financing by committing to providing 25 per cent of peacekeeping operation costs. The African Union High Representative for the Peace Fund has just recalled that those recommendations were adopted during the twenty-seventh Assembly ofHeads of State and Government of the African Union, held in Kigali in July. Such laudable efforts must not be in vain. I would like to hope that draft resolution S/2016/977, which we are to adopt following this debate, will provide a solid foundation for definitively settling the crucial issue of financing for peacekeeping operations in African Union countries. We are further encouraged by the fact that the draft resolution rightly welcomes the efforts of the African Union to bring its contribution to 25 per cent for peacekeeping operations. That is a strong political message from the Security Council to the African Union, expressing the Council’s readiness as it moves in that direction. It offers genuine prospects to better reflect on the best way to ensure lasting and predictable financing for peacekeeping operations in African Union countries. To conclude, my delegation would like to welcome the issuance of the Secretary-General’s report in document S/2016/809, on the United Nations-African Union joint review of existing financing and support mechanisms for African Union peacekeeping operations authorized by the Security Council. The conclusions of the report stress the importance of access to assessed contributions as a way of providing reliable, predictable and sustainable financing to cover the support costs of African Union peacekeeping operations. I now resume my functions as President of the Council.

It is quite a pleasure to have the Foreign Minister of Senegal here to preside over this meeting of the Security Council to guide and shape our discussions on a matter that occupies a unique place within the deliberations of the Council and is, of course, a matter of great importance to Africa. (spoke in English) I would like to begin by commending Senegal and the Senegalese presidency for convening this debate on strengthening the partnership between the United Nations and African Union on peace and security. We thank the briefers, namely, Mr. El-Ghassim Wane, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations; Mr. Haile Menkerios, Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the African Union; Mr. Тéte António, Permanent Observer of the African Union to the United Nations; and Mr. Donald Kaberuka, African Union High Representative for the Peace Fund. Their comments, remarks and proposals have very much enriched our debate this morning on a theme that is very dear to the African continent and to the entire global community, given the threats to peace and security facing the world. The contemporary and evolving challenges posed by violent conflict, humanitarian crises, extremism, terrorism, war crimes and crimes against humanity call for a more coordinated response and complementary action on the part of all stakeholders in addressing issues related to peace and security at the international and regional levels. In that regard, cooperation between the African Union (AU) and the United Nations based on a shared vision, goals and comparative advantages plays a critical role in tackling the numerous conflicts on the African continent. The Council has just returned from a mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where members of the Council were able to personally observe the challenges that we face, and I think that the debate this morning will provide valuable insights into what we are called upon to do. The Addis Ababa Declaration of 2006, which established a 10-year capacity-building programme for the African Union, provided the basis for cooperation between the two organizations and the establishment of an institutional framework, inter alia, the United Nations Office to the African Union, the annual joint consultative meetings, African non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council coordination group, the joint framework between the United Nations and the Peace and Security Department of the African Union, and the Joint Task Force on Peace and Security. Important Council resolutions have been adopted, in particular resolutions 2023 (2011) and 2067 (2012), which seek to strengthen the relationship between the two organizations and develop a more effective partnership. Those were positive developments that we are now called upon to refine by improving the mechanisms established, and the debate today provides a unique opportunity to enhance our joint responsibility to render our cooperation more effective. In that connection, bearing in mind the need to further develop the relationship from a level based on cooperation to one consisting of a strategic partnership, the Assembly of the African Union adopted a decision in July 2015 to establish the 2017-2028 framework for a renewed partnership on Africa`s integration and development agenda, based on, among other provisions, the guiding principles of African ownership and leadership. The agenda is built upon important and strategic policy decisions taken by the African Union, namely, Agenda 2063, which is aimed at creating the conditions for the sustainable development of the African continent, and Vision 2020, which together provide the AU framework to put an end to all conflicts on the continent by 2020. In its fiftieth anniversary solemn declaration, the AU proclaimed the need for a stronger commitment by African States to efforts to address conflicts on the continent and to review their policies on peace and security. The African Union member States have expressed a clear commitment to engage in peacekeeping missions with robust mandates aimed at deterring violence and, if necessary, enforcing peace. That endeavour can be achieved only with close coordination and complementarity with the United Nations and the Security Council, given the Council’s premier responsibility in the maintenance of international peace and security. In 2015, we adopted the African Peace and Security Architecture Roadmap for the period 2016 to 2020, which is a strategic blueprint putting particular emphasis on effective delivery by all stakeholders involved in the peace and security architecture, including partners and external actors. The Roadmap aims at covering the various phases of the conflict cycle through five strategic priorities: conflict prevention, conflict management, post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding, strategic security issues and coordination and partnership. The central question remains: How can the United Nations Security Council support the successful implementation of those priorities? The United Nations went through a review of peacekeeping operations. The High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations presented a comprehensive report (see S/2015/446), regarding which the African Union was extensively consulted by the Panel, and the AU was given an opportunity to lay out its common position focused on priorities, including crisis management by regional institutions, a recognition of the Security Council’s primacy in authorizing enforcement action, the need for permanent consultations and exchanges of information relating to ongoing crises and conflicts, and the need for better coordination and the strengthening of complementarities. In the search for African solutions to the conflicts affecting the continent, given the unprecedented threats faced by some African countries and the delays in the operationalization of the African Standby Force, which was initially due to global events of 2008, some AU member States launched discussions on the establishment of the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis, so as to provide the African continent with the means to ensure their ownership in tackling conflict situations on the continent and capabilities for immediately responding to crises. In finalizing those strategic operational decisions based on African Union-led experiences, some common denominators became apparent: first, the joint commitment by the AU and the United Nations to strengthen their strategic partnership on issues related to peace and security, and, secondly, the need to explore options for ensuring predictable, reliable and sustainable funding for peace-support operations in the continent. Angola commends the AU Peace Fund report entitled “Securing predictable and sustainable financing for peace in Africa”. On the long road towards finding more appropriate responses to the unprecedented threats to peace and security globally, particularly in Africa, considering the need for predictable funding in order to ensure peacekeeping operations in Africa, the High Representative of the AU Peace Fund, who is present here this morning, has presented a commendable proposal that the Council has been called upon to consider. We reiterate our support for the draft resolution (S/2016/977) to be adopted shortly. We look forward to options on the operationalization of the commitments by the African Union and the outcomes of today’s discussion on the issue and the follow-up action by the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly, as well as later on by the African Union Summit to be convened in January in Addis Ababa.

I would like to thank the Senegalese delegation for having convened today’s debate. I also wish to thank Messrs. Wane, António, Menkerios and Kaberuka for their briefings. Bearing in mind that the Security Council continues to focus most of its attention on responding to issues that threaten peace and security in the African continent, there is clearly a need to consolidate and strengthen the operational and strategic links between the two multilateral forums, that is, the United Nations and the African Union (AU), so as to enable the United Nations-AU partnership to flourish and bear fruit on the basis of mutual respect. My country recognizes the key role played by the African Union in the peaceful settlement of disputes in Africa as part of the AU 2063 Agenda and the African Peace and Security Architecture 2016-2020 Roadmap. Against that backdrop, it is essential that the Security Council grant a larger role to the African Union in measures involving the African continent. Unfortunately, we have noted with concern a tendency within the Council to apply measures under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, rather than giving priority to Chapters VI and VIII. We therefore call upon the Council to address conflict situations in Africa in a balanced manner, based on peaceful measures for settling disputes, and to include the African Union’s participation in such efforts. Ongoing interference in the domestic affairs of African countries is a key factor in the destabilization and conflict that we see in the continent. It is unfortunate that the national interests of some Council members in situations involving some countries and conflicts in Africa have transformed the Council into a body for meddling and exerting pressure. As an example, I would note the precipitate action taken in 2011 in the form of coercive measures in Libya under Chapter VII of the Charter. That was carried out despite mediation efforts already undertaken by the African Union to address the situation. However, those efforts were ignored by the Council. Five years later, we are still witnessing the serious consequences that resulted from the Council’s misguided decision and from errors on the part of the international community in Libya. Foreign intervention led to the destruction of that State’s institutions, as well as to the current instability in North Africa. Together with other factors, that intervention contributed to the growing presence of violent groups, as well as terrorism, illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons, and human trafficking, and has transformed the Mediterranean Sea into an enormous, bloody burial ground for thousands of migrants. It is therefore paradoxical that, while the African Union is a key partner of the United Nations in peace and security matters, we are not taking its assessments and views into account on relevant items that are discussed in the Council, such as the issues of Western Sahara and the migrant crisis. We recall that Venezuela abstained in the Council’s adoption of resolution 2240 (2015) (see S/PV.7531), concerning the migrant crisis, because the resolution did not take into account the concerns of the African countries that are the most affected by the issue. The Observer of the African Union was not even allowed to participate in the debate, and Chapter VII of the Charter was invoked to address a multidimensional problem that continues to affect the African population. In the case of Western Sahara we have seen refusals on the part of some Council members to allow the Permanent Representative of the African Union for Western Sahara to address the Council. I believe that it is worth recalling that resolution 690 (1991) confers upon the African Union a key role to play in supporting the United Nations as a facilitator in Western Sahara and in supervising the referendum for the self-determination of Western Sahara, the last remaining colony in Africa. In the light of all that, the relationship between the Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council needs to be improved and strengthened. That is one of the key points made as part of the 2015 broad analysis of peace operations and of the peacekeeping architecture. Moreover, we highly value the progress made in peacekeeping operations, the exceptional role of the United Nations Office to the African Union, and United Nations support to regional organizations in policy development and guidance and training in areas such as security-sector reform, post-conflict reconstruction, women and peace and security, the protection of civilians, including children, and preventing and combatting sexual and gender- based violence. It is our hope that those key aspects of cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union will be strengthened in the future. We need to make greater headway in strengthening the link between our two organizations and in developing the holistic and common strategies needed to respond to the emerging challenges in Africa, based on mutual responsibilities and comparative advantages, with a view to achieving bettercoordination and synergy between the two bodies. We also look forward to the speedy adoption of a United Nations-African Union framework for an enhanced partnership for peace and security. We have also taken note of the African Union commitment to contributing 25 per cent of the financing of peace support operations in the region, which is an important step towards ensuring the predictable, sustainable and flexible support and funding that peace operations require. In conclusion, it is important to support the role played by regional and subregional organizations in finding peaceful and political solutions to conflicts, as well as preventing them and coordinating efforts to maintain and consolidate peace. In any case, it is clear that outside interference is pernicious and unacceptable, that the Security Council alone cannot address challenges to peace and security in Africa, and that the African Union must be recognized as a legitimate political authority in the region. The relationship between the Security Council and the African Union must therefore focus on strengthening the strategic alliance between both entities in order to address conflicts and uphold peace in Africa.

I would like to thank Mr. Ndiaye for convening today’s meeting on an important subject and to acknowledge Senegal’s role as one of the most significant contributors to United Nations peacekeeping forces. I thank Assistant Secretary-General Wane, Ambassador António, Special Representative Menkerios and Mr. Kaberuka for their briefings, which have conveyed a clear and consistent set of messages for the Council to consider. New Zealand looks forward to the Council’s adoption later this morning of draft resolution S/2016/977, prepared by Senegal and the United States, which we believe will send a strong signal of the Security Council’s political support and encouragement of the recent efforts of the African Union (AU) to strengthen our partnership. Over the past two decades, the States members of the African Union have demonstrated their willingness and intention to lead the way in preventing and resolving conflict and securing peace in their region. Effective cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union is essential to ensure support for those efforts and to maximize their chances of success. As others have said, it is therefore critical that the United Nations and the African Union take a structured, complementary and integrated approach to tackling peace and security challenges on the continent. Various models for such cooperation have been tested, with varying degrees of success. In Somalia, we have seen an African-led peace operation, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), operate with support from bilateral donors, backed by a United Nations support office. In Darfur, we have seen a hybrid United Nations-AU force achieve some progress, but it has also encountered serious challenges in implementing its mandate. Those missions have enjoyed some success, and we pay tribute to those who have contributed to that. But they have also highlighted some of the ongoing challenges facing United Nations- AU cooperation, particularly where arrangements for financing, logistical support and mission leadership are concerned. The missions initially led by the African Union in Mali and the Central African Republic are also a clear case in point. Although different in nature, the case of the Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad basin also demonstrated the need for a model that can enable a more robust response to critical security threats, such as that posed by Boko Haram to the countries of that region. In the case of AMISOM, despite the success of the United Nations logistical-support package, troop-contributing countries in the region continue to be frustrated by the lack of predictable financing for troop stipends. Such approaches are neither sufficient nor sustainable, which is why New Zealand welcomes Senegal’s initiative in focusing attention on that critical issue today. Over the past decade, we have all made obeisance to the need for cooperation between the African Union and the United Nations. It is time to move beyond the rhetoric of cooperation to arrangements that will have practical, meaningful application and deliver concrete results. I want to focus today on three specific areas where the United Nations-AU partnership should be strengthened. First, we should foster shared analysis and understanding of security challenges between the United Nations and the African Union. We share the view of Special Representative Menkerios that early engagement on building a common analysis and understanding of security challenges and conflict situations creates an essential foundation for effective cooperation. If the United Nations and the African Union — and for that matter the regional economic communities — can agree on objective analyses of the fundamental causes and drivers of conflict, decisions on possible responses, solutions and respective roles should flow more naturally. But how can we achieve that? Secretariat-to-secretariat connections are critical. The United Nations Office to the African Union plays a vital role in United Nations engagement with the African Union, and should be further strengthened. Joint assessment missions, information exchanges, training and secondments are also useful tools for building connections, mutual trust and understanding between the two secretariats. Enhanced cooperation between the executive bodies of the two organizations — the African Union Peace and Security Council and the United Nations Security Council — is also very important. New Zealand recognizes the significance of regular, structured, formal exchanges between the Councils, such as their annual joint meeting. But we believe that it is much more useful to have regular informal engagement between the two bodies, and that will deliver greater value. In our experience, such interactions have been most successful when they focus on specific issues, often after field missions, when the two bodies can focus on what has been achieved and what the problems are, rather than the areas where each believes that the other is letting it down. Greater use of joint visiting missions would be another practical way to enable the two Councils to gain a shared appreciation of situations and lend their combined weight to joint political messaging on what is required. We urge the African Union and the Security Council, including next year’s incoming members, to make greater use of joint visiting missions in 2017. Secondly, we must work together to help strengthen the relevant capacities in the African Union. If we are to deepen cooperation, it is essential to ensure that the African Union and the United Nations share standards and approaches for key aspects of their field missions. In addition to due-diligence requirements for human rights in peace operations, we should think through other challenging and complex issues, such as standards for conduct and discipline, financial controls, resource management and environmental standards. That will require significant effort in building relevant capabilities within the AU. What the United Nations will get in return is a stronger partner able to help tackle shared challenges, often significantly more cheaply than the United Nations can. Thirdly, as we have already heard today, we must tackle the fundamental issue of financing for African- led peace operations. New Zealand acknowledges the challenges involved in reaching agreement on a new, more sustainable financing model in the current environment of austerity. But continuing to rely on ad hoc arrangements each time a new African Union-led mission is deployed is simply not sustainable. Time and again, we have found ourselves reliant on temporary fixes and improvised arrangements in order to mobilize and sustain a response to critical security threats. That often leads to critical delays in establishing a mission and to ongoing capability gaps and uncertainties around funding. The result is less effective missions and longer, more costly conflicts. Finding a mechanism for providing sustained, predictable financing for African-led peace operations is therefore an urgent priority. That is why we strongly support the proposals put forward by the African Union to address the issue, particularly the road map outlined by Mr. Kaberuka whereby 25 per cent of the cost of African Union-led peace operations would be financed by African States. We are also supportive of proposals to utilize United Nations assessed contributions for financing African Union-led missions in defined circumstances. We realize that those are ambitious proposals. Moreover, we understand what would have to be put in place as prerequisites for making them work. Meeting such challenges will need to be a priority for the new leadership of the United Nations and African Union, when they assume office next year. In the meantime, Member States will need to take the difficult decisions necessary to advance the partnership with the African Union in a meaningful way.

I thank you, Sir, for convening today’s very important meeting and I thank Senegal for its leadership in peacekeeping in general. I also thank today’s briefers — Assistant Secretary-General Wane, Special Representative of the Secretary-General Menkerios, High Representative Mr. Kaberuka and Ambassador António. Today marks a significant milestone after many months, in fact, many years, of discussions on ways the United Nations and the African Union (AU) could work together to build and even stronger partnership to address collective threats to peace and security. While the Charter of the United Nations has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the AU has been an indispensable partner in responding to crises on the African Continent, often deploying its troops and police in some of the most challenging and urgent threat environments. We recall the early days of the conflict in Mali, in 2013, when African troops rapidly self-deployed overland as part of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali, in some cases with only the most basic equipment; or the Central African Republic in 2013, when despite lacking logistical support to deploy outside of the capital, the African-led operation contained the spread violence. Let us recall Somalia, where brave AU-led forces have helped transform a country, once associated with State failure, into one where earnest State-building efforts are under way. Together the AU and the United Nations have partnered to try to address such crises, a reflection of shared responsibilities for restoring peace and security. But, in looking back on those past missions and, more broadly, on the United Nations-AU partnership, I think we can agree on two truths. The first is that, unfortunately, such kinds of operations are unlikely to dissipate any time soon. To the contrary, more than a dozen sub-Saharan countries are now confronting threats from violent extremists, while civil war and unrest continue to threaten civilians in places like South Sudan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The second truth, and what draft resolution contained in document S/2016/977 affirms today, internationals the need to strengthen the financial and operational underpinnings of the United Nations-AU partnership to better support African-led peace operations. Ad hoc arrangements, cobbled together whenever crises arise, are not a recipe for success or a good use of resources, which is why President Obama pledged during his July 2015 visit to AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, to help develop a new partnership that would transform how we work together to promote peace and security in Africa. AU High Representative, Donald Kaberuka, has spearheaded that strategic effort by advancing plans to operationalize the AU peace fund and to fulfil the AU commitment to self-finance 25 per cent of the cost of AU-led peace operations by 2020. In July, at the AU Summit in Kigali, AU Heads of State took a historic decision, endorsing Mr. Kaberuka’s plans. That significant commitment not only builds up African self-reliance in the AU’s own words and ownership over African operations but is integral to a broader AU effort to ensure that the AU and its member States are in charge of their own destiny, including the use of its funds. The decision also sets an important cornerstone for advancing the AU-United Nations partnership by setting out operational, human rights and conduct frameworks to strengthen AU policies and procedures. We recognize that United Nations peacekeepers are not always best positioned to respond to a crisis in Africa, especially when there is no peace to keep or armed groups threaten civilians, but we also recognize that the AU does not have sufficient capacity, in part because of insufficient and unreliable international support to respond effectively on its own. A stronger United Nations-AU partnership promises to leverage the comparative advantages of each for the benefit of all in the pursuit of peace and security across the continent. To realize the full potential of that partnership, more work needs to be done to build mutual trust, enhance complementarity and put in place new ways of working. I would like to focus on three factors that would be critical to get right for this partnership to reach its full potential. The first factor is up-front mission planning, which my colleague from New Zealand has already highlighted. In cases where the Security Council is considering authorizing support for an AU-led operation under Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations as the most effective way to respond to a crisis, the Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council must work closely together from the outset. That requires consultations between the AU Peace and Security Council and the Security Council, the deployment of the joint United Nations- AU assessment team to evaluate the political, security, humanitarian and human rights situations on the ground and joint planning, including on the strategic concept, the concept of operations, forced generation and cost implications. Success will be enhanced by making sure that United Nations experts with critical experience and know-how, including financial and procurement expertise are fully integrated into those planning stages. That will ensure that both councils are working together to build the backbone of a mission that both institutions can support. The second success factor is a fully implemented set of AU human rights and conduct and discipline compliance policies. That includes putting in place rigorous procedures for troop and police screening and selection, training, monitoring, reporting, independent investigations and holding perpetrators of violations and misconduct accountable. Such measures are critical for harmonizing AU policies and practices, with international legal obligations and standards, so that both the AU and the United Nations have clear systems in order to prevent abuses and misconduct and to promote accountability if and when allegations arise. The third factor is ongoing mission evaluation and reporting. Meaningful mission evaluation requires joint evaluation and benchmarking exercises, throughout the duration of a mission. In that way, the AU Peace and Security Council and the Security Council would be informed of the progress made towards achieving the mission mandate and able to make recommendations for adjusting the mandate as needed. It would also require regular reporting by the AU to the AU Peace and Security Council and the Security Council on its implementation of the Mission’s mandate, in compliance with AU human rights and conduct and discipline policies. Such reporting would include allegations of human rights abuses, international humanitarian law transgressions and conduct and discipline issues and actions taken by the AU and troop- and police-contributing countries in response to allegations. That transparency would demonstrate the commitment of the AU in its troop- and police-contributing countries to upholding human rights and would serve as a critical step in achieving accountability for actions that undermine the legitimacy of peacekeeping and prey upon vulnerable populations. Taken together, those three factors would form the foundation for a future partnership that we all have a strong, collective interest in seeing built. Such factors should be addressed in the AU and United Nations implementation details requested in the resolution to be adopted today, along with specific benchmarks and steps that would be taken to ensure that the AU Peace Fund is consistent with member State World Trade Organization obligations. Ultimately, to achieve those three elements, we will need to shake ourselves out of old biases and routines and work, hand in hand, to build that foundation together. Otherwise we risk needlessly losing more lives because the institutional status quo prevailed. The stakes for the AU’s courageous peacekeepers and for the vulnerable civilians that they protect are simply too high.

China thanks Senegal for convening today’s meeting and we welcome Foreign Minister Ndiaye as he presides over today’s meeting. We listened very attentively to the statements by Assistant Secretary-General Wane, Special Representative of the Secretary-General Menkerios, Ambassador António and Mr. Kaberuka. The African Union (AU) is committed to African countries’ strength in unity, cooperation, solidarity and to promoting the resolution of African issues in African ways and safeguarding peace and stability on the African continent. The international community universally commends its efforts. In recent years, the United Nations and the AU have continued to advance cooperation in the area of peace and security, jointly work towards a political settlement of the questions of South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, together deploy forces in the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, engage in post-war reconstruction in Liberia and Sierra Leone and play a positive role in safeguarding peace and stability on the African continent. China supports the strengthening of AU and United Nations cooperation in the area of peace and security and building partnerships of cooperation to safeguard regional peace and security. China would like to highlight the following points with regard to strengthening the cooperation between the United Nations and the AU in the area peace and security. First, we should jointly uphold the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. The Security Council has the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. The AU is an important platform for African countries to collectively respond to threats and challenges in the region. In accordance with Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, the strengthening of cooperation between the AU and the United Nations is conducive to maintaining peace and stability in Africa. The United Nations should continue to support the African Union in its efforts to settle disputes through such peaceful means as dialogue, consultation, good offices and mediation, while respecting States’ sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity. Secondly, we should encourage shared notions in promoting collective security. The countries of the world are interdependent, with intertwined security. Parties should adhere to a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable concept of security and seek and promote security through cooperation. The cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union should be based on the concept of common security. They must strengthen strategic planning and engage in comprehensive cooperation in conflict prevention, resolving regional hotspot issues, safeguarding peace and peacebuilding so as to achieve win-win cooperation and common security. Thirdly, we should coordinate and cooperate better, so as to promote the settlement of regional issues. The African Union has ample experience with good offices and mediation and advantages in geography, history and culture. Therefore, it has a unique role to play in resolving contentious issues in Africa. China supports the United Nations in listening to the viewpoints of the AU and African countries so as to ensure that all parties, in the process of reaching political settlements on contentious African issues, can make full use of their respective advantages, complement each other, strengthen their coordination, take into account the root causes of regional hotspots, scale up the AU’s input and thereby develop comprehensive and targeted solutions to issues. Fourthly, we should support the AU in building the capacity of its collective security mechanism. Scaling up the AU’s capacity-building in peace and security is conducive to better efforts in managing good offices and mediation and assuming more responsibilities in peacekeeping. It promotes the comprehensive settlement of regional issues. We hope that the United Nations will provide more support to buildingthe African Union’s collective security mechanism in personnel training, setting up institutions, logistical support and funding, and that it will support building the African Standby Force and rapid response force in combating threats posed by terrorism and piracy in the region and effectively enhance the capacity of collective African security. China attaches great importance and is strongly committed to promoting cooperation with the African Union in peace and security. So far, it has already participated in 16 United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa, and there are 2,600 Chinese peacekeepers in missions such as in Mali, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Darfur, and in the Sudan and Liberia. At the summit commemorating the seventieth anniversary of the United Nations, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that within the next five years China would provide $100 million to the African Union in military assistance grants to support building up the African Standby Force and the crisis rapid response force. Last year at the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, President Xi Jinping and the African leaders unanimously decided that the Chinese-African relationship would be upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership and highlighted that, in the coming three years, the emphasis would be placed on implementing cooperation plans in the following 10 areas: industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, financing, green development, trade, facilitating investment, improving people’s livelihoods, and eradicating poverty, public health, people-to-people exchanges and peace and security. China will continue to participate in United Nations peacekeeping in Africa and will help African countries to strengthen their capacity-building in national defence, anti-terrorism, riot prevention, customs management and immigration control. The coordinators’ meeting of the implementation of the outcome of the Summit of the Forum on China- Africa Cooperation was successfully concluded in July in Beijing, which further promoted practical cooperation between China and Africa in many areas. China is willing to work jointly with African countries and actively implement the outcome of the Johannesburg Summit and safeguard peace and stability on the African continent. We are committed to developing a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation at its core and building a community with a common, secure and bright future for us all.

I thank the four briefers for their introductory remarks, and the Senegalese presidency of the Security Council for convening this debate. France fully endorses the statement to be made shortly by the Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Union. I have four points to make. First, the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union on issues of peace and security is an indisputable and significant fact. African organizations, acting within the African Peace and Security Architecture, are increasingly assuming their responsibilities in crisis management on the African continent. At the same time, as a natural consequence, the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union becomes a necessity in the context of Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. This development, which will only continue, will strongly mark the term of the incoming Secretary-General. Secondly, France acknowledges, encourages and takes an active part in this development. On a bilateral basis, France is one of the primary partners in capacity- building for peace in Africa. Our partnerships foresee the training of 20,000 African soldiers by 2020. This is a major goal that we are committed to achieving. France welcomes the role played by African Union and African regional organizations, both at the political level, such as the role that the Intergovernmental Authority on Development plays in South Sudan and that of the Economic Community of Central African States in the Central African Republic, as well as at the military level, in the framework of complementarity with United Nations peacekeeping operations — for example, as illustrated in the transition from the African- led International Support Mission in Mali to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali and in the transition 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 — as well as, independently with the Multinational Joint Task Force against Boko Haram. With regard to the Security Council, France believes that taking into account the views of regional organizations should become automatic and can lead the way to building consensus when there is a strong and consensus-based position of the African Union or a subregional organization. Thirdly, this partnership should be strengthened in order to address at least four challenges, as called for in the recent report (S/2016/780) of the Secretary-General and in Mr. Kaberuka’s report endorsed in July during the African Union Summit in Kigali. The first challenge is that we need more collaboration and coordination. The United Nations and regional organizations act both simultaneously and consecutively with different modalities in response to the same crises. The regional dimension is unavoidable when the United Nations takes action after an African Union operation or in support of the implementation of a peace agreement negotiated in the region. All of those dimensions are tied together. The second challenge is the need to identify which situations would benefit more from the added value of which organization. The United Nations does a great deal, but it cannot, and does not know how to, do everything. In certain situations, a regional organization is perhaps better equipped to respond to the specific circumstances on the ground. The African Union Mission in Somalia, for example, comes to mind, where the African Union brings genuine added value as compared with the capacities of the United Nations. The third challenge is to ensure the necessary financial predictability and sustainability for African peace operations. That is the message of the Kaberuka report, presented to the Council in September by the African Union, which France welcomes. It includes proposals that should be seriously considered both by the African Union and its member States — which should finance 25 per cent of the cost of African operations — and by the United Nations — which should make a mandatory 75 per cent contribution to the cost of the operations. The fourth challenge is to ensure that the funding structure is implemented within a robust, comprehensive partnership. Financing African peace operations through mandatory United Nations contributions must go hand in hand with the joint planning and monitoring capabilities of the Security Council and the African Union, which entails bolstering and even creating a mechanism that does not yet exist. We must also attach the greatest importance to respecting human rights, as operations mandated, supported and financed by the Security Council must respect the highest human rights standards and, more generally, must pay particular attention to the conduct of the operations. Finally, we must identify precisely what type of operations lend themselves to such a mechanism and what type of concrete support the United Nations could provide. All of those challenges have been clearly identified in the three underlying reports for this debate, the Kaberuka report and the two Secretary-General reports from September. They are also taken up in the concept note (S/2016/966, annex) circulated by the delegation of Senegal for this meeting, as well as in the draft resolution contained in document S/2016/977, which will be put to the vote at the end of the debate. The draft resolution fully spells out the framework of the partnership and duly acknowledges the fact that, although the United Nations-African Union partnership on peace and security has a financial component, it is not entirely financial. Moreover, the draft text recognizes that there is much work yet to be done and calls on the Secretary- General and the African Union for their guidance in supplementary and complementary work. France fully supports that approach, and we thank Senegal and the United States for having proposed it.

Spain and the United Kingdom are participating jointly today under the so-called Toledo formula. As such, Spain aligns itself with the statement to be delivered by the representative of the United Kingdom. We also align ourselves by the statement to be delivered by the observer of the European Union. We are grateful for the opportunity afforded to us by this debate, as well as for the briefings on the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union, a key alliance for peace and security on the African continent. Although this decade has seen significant progress in that partnership, the rapid changes and growing complexity of global threats force us to adapt our responses and take full advantage of our respective competitive advantages. The advantage of the Security Council flows from the primacy conferred upon it by the Charter of the United Nations on peace and security issues, while the African Union’s is rooted in due acknowledgement of the efforts of a dynamic and growing continent that is determined to forge its own future. The challenge today is to go from more or less improvised cooperation, depending upon the urgency of each emerging conflict, to a more institutionalized partnership that inspires confidence, is more effective and enhances synergies. That renewed partnership cannot be limited to deploying operations, but rather must encompass every phase of a conflict. I shall focus on prevention and mediation, and the representataive of the United Kingdom will cover peacekeeping aspects. Prevention is key. The report (see S/2015/446) of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations report itself lays out the crucial primacy of politics. We know that the vast majority of conflicts in the African continent are politically based, and that they all require a political solution. It is worth noting that it is was trust and team work between the region and the United Nations that made it possible to settle crises in places such as Burkina Faso, and that it is a lack of understanding that hinders progress in other conflicts. There is a long path ahead of us, especially if we are to go from early warning signals to joint mobilization. Improving coordination, reducing response time and speaking in a unified voice continue to be significant challenges. The contribution of the United Nations Office to the African Union is undoubtedly essential in that regard. That is why welcome the ongoing review aimed at strengthening it. Moreover, we should implement some of the proposals that several delegations made during the 24 May open debate (see S/PV.7694) on cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union, to which the Ambassador of New Zealand referred in his statement. Those proposals include early, joint identification of potential crises, sharing information and increasing communication between the respective secretariats and Councils, holding informal brainstorming meetings and deploying joint missions on the ground. Cooperation on sanctions is another area to be looked into, as the effectiveness of sanctions largely depends upon regional implementation, and their legitimacy would be bolstered by the express political support of the region. Finally, regarding mediation and the peaceful settlement of conflicts, a United Nations-African Union partnership would have obvious benefits. In that regard, we note and commend the initiative of the African Union to create a specialized registry of women mediators for the continent at the disposal of both the African Union and the United Nations. We also point to South Sudan as a future test case for the United Nations-African Union partnership, and to recall that it was the solidarity of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the African Union and the Ssecurity Council in calling for an end to the clashes that made it possible to reach the August 2015 peace agreement. We believe it is time to once again raise our voice together.

The United Kingdom aligns itself fully with the statement just delivered by the representative of Spain. We are pleased to make two further points on the United Nations- African Union partnership — a partnership that will remain critical for peace and security on the African continent. I will focus my comments on the United Nations-African Union partnership in respect of United Nations peacekeeping and African Union (AU) peace support operations. At the London 2016 defence ministerial meeting, the United Kingdom launched its focus on the “three Ps” of peacekeeping. That framework for improving peacekeeping is equally important in thinking about how we continue to approach the United Nations-AU partnership in terms of peace operations. We need clear planning based on sharing of information and common threat assessments. We need consultative analysis and joint planning that reflects our respective roles and which extends throughout the life cycle of missions. In terms of pledges, AU member States are already significant troop contributors. The United Kingdom and Spain pay tribute to their service. AU member States bring unique and diverse capabilities, and we need to move to the next phase of better matching the experience of troops and police to the areas where they are deployed. In terms of performance, it is vital to have the right sort of mission to face each challenge, which brings me to the very heart of the issue we discussed last week on how peacekeeping can evolve to work in high-threat environments (see S/PV.7802). In that debate, many of us commented on the unique comparative advantage of the AU in tackling such threats and taking on more direct peace-enforcement activity. The AU and its member States are in many cases the ones that can respond to kinetic environments in a different way, as the African Union Mission in Somalia is designed to do in that country. For that very reason, we need the United Nations-AU partnership to continue to grow and be strengthened so that we are more than the sum of our parts. That leads me to my second point. AU member States have made a welcome commitment to offering a significantly increased financial contribution to AU peace-support operations. That development has the potential to open up new opportunities for the partnership with the United Nations in the coming years. We need to have more detailed discussions on how we can collective enhance the predictability, sustainability and flexibility of financing for AU-led peace-support operations that are authorized by the Security Council. Mr. Kaberuka’s work is an important contribution to this debate. There will be a number of challenges for the United Nations and the AU to meet. At the top of that list are the strengthening of joint analysis and planning and compliance with international humanitarian and human rights law. We must also ensure accountability and oversight of missions’ performance and financing. If we get this right, there are significant opportunities for the both the United Nations and the AU to improve oversight mechanisms and ensure high standards of performance and effective delivery of our mandates. Put simply, we will be better placed to rise to the challenge of delivering peace and security on the African continent. The United Kingdom and Spain look forward to continuing this important discussion.

I would like to thank you, Mr. Minister, for convening and presiding over today’s important meeting. I also thank Mr. Wane, Mr. Menkerios, Mr. António and Mr. Kaberuka for their briefings. Cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union (AU) on peace and security has evolved markedly in recent years. Indeed, the international challenges we face today demand that our organizations develop an ever-closer strategic partnership. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the annual joint consultative meeting between the United Nations Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council. Our dialogue and partnership will only continue to grow. We are encouraged by AU commitments to make the AU more self-reliant, including via financial arrangements on peace-support operations through the African Peace Fund. Not only the United Nations Secretariat but also States Members of the United Nations themselves should respond to this progress by engaging in discussions on financial issues, as expressed in the draft resolution (S/2016/977) to be voted on later. In discussing peacekeeping, we should recall that the true aim of the United Nations-AU partnership is sustaining peace. Strengthened peace operations are an important tool to that end, but not our final goal. I believe this is the essence of the AU aspiration to “silence the guns by 2020, through enhanced dialogue-centred conflict prevention and resolution”. And as the Council recognized through its presidential statement S/PRST/2016/12, adopted under the Japanese presidency in July, we believe that peacebuilding is the key. The AU has a comparative advantage in its contextual knowledge and mediation abilities in support of political solutions, including through the Panel of the Wise. Japan strongly believes in political solutions and has supported AU mediation efforts and good offices since 1996. Strengthened United Nations-AU partnerships in conflict management and peacebuilding will be key success factors in creating more effective peace operations and more sustainable peace in the long term. Ultimately, it is Africa’s socioeconomic development that will lead to sustainable peace and the AU’s self-reliance. The AU Policy on Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development reminds us that security and development are closely linked. As we consider how to strengthen United Nations-AU cooperation, we should focus on Agenda 2063’s call for economic and human development, conflict prevention and institutions. The Tokyo International Conference on African Development also complements United Nations-AU cooperation and is based on the principles of African ownership and international partnership. More than anything, the United Nations-AU partnership is about empowering African States, societies and people to play an active role in creating a safer and more prosperous future. Japan looks forward to supporting continued collaboration that employs the comparative advantages of each organization in pursuit of our common goal.

We are very happy to welcome you here once again, Mr. Minister, to preside over the Security Council. We took note of, and are grateful for, the briefings by the representatives of the United Nations and of the African Union (AU). We are once again today discussing an important topic, namely, the partnership between the AU and the United Nations in ensuring peace and security. It is clear that there are ongoing serious threats and challenges in a number of African countries, including the marginalization of various groups and territories, the spread of terrorism, the activities of transnational organized-crime networks and piracy. There are ongoing conflicts as well as the destabilization of a number of countries and regions due, inter alia, to arbitrary interference from external forces. All of this leads to a hitherto unseen increase in the number of forcibly displaced persons. The international community should responde in a timely and effective manner to threats and challenges to security in Africa. Obviously, we must prevent attempts to impose on Africans ready-made solutions without their clearly expressed consent. The experience of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and other countries demonstrates the harmful nature and ineffectiveness of such action. We welcome efforts to find African-owned solutions. Africans know better than anyone else the situation and have situation-specific mechanisms at their disposal. We note progress in the creation of the African architecture for crisis response. We support the enhanced cooperation with the Africa Union so as to ensure peace and security on the continent. Ignoring African views has adverse implications. It is enough to recall the result of disregard by external forces of the African Union initiative for political settlement in Libya in 2011. Russia has consistently called for developing the partnership between the United Nations and African organizations, including between the United Nations Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council, pursuant to Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. The importance of such cooperation is affirmed in the conclusions and recommendations of last year’s review of the United Nations peacekeeping architecture as well as the September reports of the Secretary-General. We support further pooling of efforts between the United Nations and the African Union to stabilize the situations in Darfur, Somalia, Mali, the Sahel, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, as well as the conflict between the Sudan and South Sudan. We also would like to see closer cooperation on thematic issues, which would include combating international terrorism, transnational organized crime, piracy and illegal trafficking in weapons and narcotics. We took note of the outcome of the United Nations-AU review on the matter of support to African peacekeeping operations entrusted with Security Council mandates. We stand ready for further constructive dialogue with our African partners. Of key importance, in our view, is increasing the predictability, reliability and flexibility of the financing of such operations. We agree on the importance of ensuring effective support to them from the United Nations and other international partners. Of equal importance is Africa’s compliance with its own decisions and obligations. As far as we have gathered, it is expected that we will finish the development of a unified African approach at the AU Summit in January. We are all aware that there remains a divergence of views on this topic, even among African Security Council members. For our part, we are of the view that the specific financial aspects of support to African peacekeeping operations through assessed contributions from United Nations States Members falls within the purview of the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly. Encroachment by the Security Council into the Fifth Committee’s prerogatives is counterproductive and undermines the long-standing division of the “division of labour” within the Organization. We share the conclusion of the Secretary-General’s report (S/2016/809) issued in September on the outcome of the joint AU-United Nations review, namely, that United Nations support to African peacekeeping should not add up solely to financial and other support. Partnership between the AU and the United Nations in support of peace and security also includes joint efforts in conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding. Russia is making a notable contribution to supporting peace and security on the African continent, which includes designing strategies to settle armed conflicts, as well defining mandates for the relevant peacekeeping operations of the United Nations in Africa. Russian troops and staff from the Ministry of the Interior participate in many such operations, and their activities are highly acclaimed by the Secretariat. My country pays particular attention to the training of police and military personnel from Africa. Specifically, in Russia there is yearly training of up to 80 peacekeepers. Staff from law enforcement agencies in Africa are given the possibility to participate in higher education programmes and internships at the short-term continuing education courses in Russia. We are also making a significant contribution to eradicating the social and economic root causes of conflict in Africa. In particular, within the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative, more than $20 billion have been written off of the bulk of African debt. The remaining debt has been rechannelled to assist Africans under the Debt for Development Programme. Furthermore, Russia is an active participant in providing across-the-board bilateral assistance to the continent in the framework of existing international mechanisms, including by making relevant contributions.

At the outset, I would like to thank the Senegalese delegation convening this morning’s debate. (spoke in English) It is also my pleasure and honour to welcome today’s briefers and thank them for their comprehensive presentations. Ukraine aligns itself with the statement to be delivered later on behalf of the European Union. Nowadays most of the United Nations peacekeeping operations are deployed on the African continent. Almost 50 per cent of the uniformed personnel in those missions are also provided by African States. That clearly demonstrates that United Nations peacekeeping efforts must closely cooperate with African States. At the same time, the United Nations is often slow in reacting to situations that can evolve into full-scale conflicts or situations where the civilian population is endangered and requires rapid protection action from the international community. In that regard, my delegation commends the African Union (AU) for having often acted as a first responder to crises even before the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers. Nevertheless, we have to admit that challenges remain and that more should be done to strengthen further the relationship between the United Nations and the AU to effectively address collective security concerns on the African continent. In our view, financing is one of the priority areas in which further action could bring about tangible, positive results. The predictability, sustainability and flexibility of financing for AU-led peace operations has been a long-standing issue. In that regard, the AU’s decision to raise the continent’s contribution to the costs of its peace-support operations to 25 per cent by 2020 is a highly commendable step. It will enhance African ownership and agenda-setting of peace initiatives of the African Union. In addition, I would like to flag other areas of particular importance. First, it is imperative to eliminate a frequently occurring flaw in many AU peace-support operations, namely, a capability gap with regard to uniformed personnel. We believe that ensuring deployment readiness and improved performance require collective and coordinated actions by the United Nations and the AU. As one of the leading European troop- and police- contributing countries to the United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa, Ukraine knows at first-hand how difficult and unpredictable situations in the areas of missions’ responsibility can sometimes be due to the existing climate or security conditions. Cooperation on strengthening the capabilities of African Union units prior to their deployment therefore could include, but not be limited to, sharing of best practices and providing special training. For instance, the United Nations has already introduced the Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System, which has proved to be a useful tool for United Nations peacekeeping operations. In our view, it could be emulated by the African Union. Secondly, recently the Security Council, along with other United Nations States Members, discussed the issue of asymmetrical threats that United Nations operations face nowadays (see S/PV.7802). It was clear from those deliberations, as well as from the relevant reports on peacekeeping operations, that United Nations peacekeeping missions are not a proper tool to combat terrorism. Many hold a view that military measures to counter terrorism and violent extremism are the responsibility of national Governments and the relevant regional organizations. Therefore, we see a great merit in the United Nations providing advice and expertise in support of respective African Union endeavours. Thirdly, after recent peacekeeping and peacebuilding reviews at the United Nations, we consider a people-centred approach to such activities of the Organization to be axiomatic. In that respect, we believe that the protection of civilians is a decisive factor not only for the success of United Nations operations, but also those of the AU endorsed by the Security Council. It is therefore worth considering establishing an effective framework for the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy in African Union peace operations. From the peacekeeping experience of the United Nations, it is clear that there is no peace without human rights. Last but not least, in the light of the recent resolutions of the Council and General Assembly on peacebuilding architecture, it is important to look back at the 2015 joint communiqué between the African Union and the Security Council, which envisaged a conduct of joint United Nations-AU field missions to areas of conflict in Africa. We should consider implementing that commitment while organizing field missions of the Security Council, which we see as an important conflict-prevention tool. Inviting representatives of Peacebuilding Commision country-specific configurations to such missions could also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Council’s visits. In conclusion, Ukraine would like to reiterate its position that, as an elected member of the Council and an observer State to the AU, we stand ready to engage constructively on each and every initiative aimed at enhancing United Nations-AU cooperation on issues related to peacekeeping, peace support and peacebuilding on the African continent. People have suffered for too long in many parts of that great continent, and the international community has a moral responsibility to make every effort to achieve lasting peace and stability wherever that might be needed.

At the outset, I would like to thank the Senegalese presidency for having chosen the topic of cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union for the November programme of work, owing to the importance of the issue in implementing in practice Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. This is one of the most important partnerships between the United Nations and international organizations. I also thank all of the briefers, in particular Mr. Kaberuka, whose mandate we support. Cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations has recently increased in importance as there is a growing awareness that no party can single-handedly confront the emerging patterns of transboundary threats to international peace and security — chief among them are terrorism and organized crime. That has helped foster new approaches towards forging partnerships at the regional, continental and international levels aimed at confronting such challenges. It has led to the conviction that cooperation, coordination and joint work are an indispensable option, facilitated through the division of labour among the relevant parties and building on their comparative advantages, towards achieving the desired goals and outcomes. In cooperation with regional economic communities and with the support of its partners, in particular the United Nations, over the years the African Union has undertaken an active role in providing security and stability in Africa. That was made possible by putting in place and operationalizing its Peace and Security Architecture and taking early initiatives to intervene in a timely manner in crises in various areas of the continent through missions that enjoy flexible, enhanced and developed mandates tailored to dealing with the reality on the ground. It also includes adopting new concepts that go beyond the role of conventional peacekeeping, combating terrorism, supporting the establishment of State institutions and confronting other unconventional challenges. In that regard, I commend the sacrifices made by the African Union missions in Somalia, Mali and the Central African Republic, among other countries, and pay tribute to their effective contributions to confronting the peace and security challenges in Africa and throughout the world. The establishment of the Peace and Security Architecture in Africa was linked to an increased awareness of the importance of African ownership. African Union Summits have adopted decisions on enhancing phased self-reliance in the funding of those activities as well as the operationalization of the Peace Fund as a main pillar of the Architecture. Ongoing discussions continue within the relevant bodies of the African Union to develop practical and effective mechanisms to implement those decisions so as to achieve the desired goals. The significant developments within Africa and the United Nations have coincided with the report (see S/2008/813) of the high-level panel chaired by former Prime Minister Prodi and the report (see S/2015/446) of the High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, thereby encompassing developments in conflicts and international crises. It is a matter of providing an opportunity for an integrated vision in supporting peace and security as well as launching new partnerships aimed at finding innovative solutions to crises and conflicts. The partnership between the United Nations and the African Union is therefore of particular importance. It enables the United Nations to actively respond peace and security challenges on the continent. Items pertaining to Africa account for 70 per cent of the agenda of Security Council, and, in that regard, I stress the importance of implementing the recommendations of the relevant reviews and reports. It is also important to build upon the continuing efforts to develop the African Peace and Security Architecture so as to give impetus to and enhance the institutional partnership between the United Nations and African Union, thereby creating a strategic partnership based on shared and jointly shouldered responsibilities, including adopting workplans to ensure regular funding of African Union peace operations. That would allow for the development of African capacity in the area of preventive diplomacy and mediation, as well as peacebuilding and reconstruction in post-conflict situations. It is also crucial to enhance the institutional cooperation between the Secretariat of the United Nations and the African Union Commission in order to enhance the implementation of agreed programmes and projects within the operations framework agreed by the two organizations, as well as to support the United Nations Office to the African Union. That would allow the Office to carry out its functions as a focal point between the two organizations. In conclusion, I reaffirm that, as a member of both the United Nations and of the African Union, Egypt is determined to actively participate in enhancing the partnership between the two organizations. It is our conviction that that is the ideal path towards countering today’s problems facing Africa, and the world in general. They are complex and multifaceted challenges. Once again, I reiterate that Egypt will exert every effort to support the work of Mr. Kaberuka.

We appreciate your presence at this open debate, Sir, and congratulate the presidency of Senegal for having organized it. We thank Mr. Wane, Mr. António, Mr. Menkerios and Mr. Kaberuka for their respective briefings. Uruguay believes that cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations is an invaluable tool to improve collective security in a world that is increasingly in turmoil and faces complex and multidimensional threats. Cooperation among States is fundamental to the prevention and peaceful settlement of conflicts. Regional organizations are playing an increasingly important role in international peacebuilding and security, insomuch as they contribute to a deepened understanding of their respective regions and wield a greater sensitivity and comprehension of realities on the ground, thereby paving the way to effectively confront the problems and conflicts that affect their respectivepositions on the map. In the case of Africa, cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union is crucial and imperative given the existence of conflict situations in complex settings, in the context of which we face asymmetrical threats and the spread of violent extremism and terrorism, and where in many cases we also must tackle humanitarian crises and mass violations of human rights. Against this backdrop, we very much welcome the work carried out with determination and energy by the African Union to achieve peace and development in Africa. We also welcome the progress made in terms of cooperation between that organization and the United Nations, but we believe that this partnership should be further strengthened through more frequent interaction and consultations, paving the way for a common understanding of conflicts and the elaboration of common strategies. In that respect, we trust that the draft resolution (S/2016/977) to be adopted today will contribute to that process. One of the major shortcomings of the system, according to the Ramos-Horta report (see S/2015/446), pertains to the financing of this strategic partnership. It is for that reason that we deem it desirable that the United Nations and the African Union pool their efforts aimed at establishing predictable, flexible and sustainable mechanisms aimed at bolstering peace-support operations in the African region. Furthermore, given that conflict prevention is a major priority, I should like to stress also that the report of the Advisory Group of Experts on the Review of the Peacebuilding Architecture (see S/2015/490) notes that peacebuilding efforts must be backed by a predictable and sustainable allocation of resources. While acknowledging the leading role played by the Security Council in matters relating to international peace and security, we must nonetheless identify the complementary functions that both organizations could carry out, harnessing their capacities, influence and experience to ensure a consistent, coherent response in various contexts. For example, the efforts in the areas of mediation, facilitation and good offices carried out by the African Union in various countries, including the Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, must be harmonized with, and complementary to, the efforts and actions undertaken by the Security Council. One area in which we believe the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union must continue to progress is that of human rights and humanitarian law. In that respect, we express our support for the United Nations Office to the African Union and for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights with respect to their assistance in strengthening the operational capacity of military, police and civilian peacekeeping staff, with an emphasis on the central importance of human rights in peacekeeping operations. Our country attaches a great deal of importance to the role played by peacekeeping operations, which we believe are of particular importance in Africa, where more than 60 per cent of peacekeeping operations and more than 80 per cent of all United Nations uniformed peacekeeping personnel are located, and given that more than 80 per cent of the annual peacekeeping budget is earmarked for missions in Africa. I think it worth highlighting that over the past decade, the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union has achieved a great deal of progress, having established various forms of cooperation, including in the missions in Mali, the Central African Republic, Somalia and the Sudan. The success of peacekeeping operations requires ever more robust cooperation between both organizations; for example, in the process of drafting mandates, it is essential that both organizations pull clearly in the same direction. To conclude, we acknowledge that the strategic partnership between the United Nations and the African Union has made further headway in the development of cooperation mechanisms, including, inter alia, mechanisms for consultative decision-making, joint analysis, planning and assessment; an integrated response to the conflict cycle; and joint efforts to prevent conflict and promote accountability and transparency. Such advances, which must continue to be fine-tuned and adapted to new realities, could serve as a model and a reference for the establishment and strengthening of partnerships between the United Nations and other regional organizations, thus bolstering synergies and promoting complementarity, taking into account at all times the unique features of each and respecting the mandates of each organization. This would allow us to benefit from and develop the potential of regional organizations, which, in keeping with Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, represent vital pillars of United Nations actions aimed at the maintenance of international peace and security.

My delegation joins other Council members in thanking Senegal for having convened today’s debate, and we thank you, Mr. Minister, for presiding over it. We wish also to express our appreciation to all the briefers for their respective briefings. We thank the Secretary-General for his report (S/2016/780), which provides further context for the subject at hand. Malaysia remains committed to further strengthening and consolidating the comprehensive partnership between the United Nations and the African Union, particularly on issues of peace and security in Africa. Such comprehensive partnership would go a long way towards further strengthening our collective and ongoing efforts in the maintenance of international peace and security. In this context, my delegation pays tribute to the work of the United Nations Office to the African Union, which has been instrumental in strengthening the partnership within the two organizations. Nonetheless, although significant progress has been made to improve cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union in recent years, more could be achieved to make the partnership more meaningful, efficient and effective. It is therefore imperative that such cooperation continue to be underpinned by, inter alia, a common strategic objective and a clear division of responsibilities, and premised on shared assessments, with a view to mutually reinforcing and complementing the decisions of both the United Nations and the African Union. It is patently clear that the lessons learned and best practices on the cooperation between the two organizations should be shared on a regular basis through a structured mechanism with a view to producing tangible, results-oriented operational benefits on the ground and avoid task redundancies and duplication, including through more frequent secretariat-to-secretariat exchanges. The opportunity afforded by the three comprehensive reviews on the United Nations peacebuilding architectures, United Nations peace operations and resolution 1325 (2000), concluded last year, provided a timely opportunity to reflect on ways and means of reinforcing cooperation in areas of common interest to the United Nations and the African Union on promoting and sustaining peace. We remain committed to the follow-up and implementation phases of the review, in coordination and cooperation with all partners and stakeholders. While conflict management remains a core function of the United Nations and regional organizations, there has been a renewed push, of which my delegation is fully supportive, towards the strengthening of collective efforts to prevent conflict from escalating into full- blown threats to international peace and security. In this regard, Malaysia remains convinced that conflict prevention must continue to be prioritized in the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union. We should continue to improve the efficiency of the United Nations-African Union preventive diplomacy, which should be geared towards more coordinated actions, including by enabling early detection and actions to defuse potential crisis situations. We share the view that regional actors, which assume greater ownership of development in their respective regions, have the potential to contribute immensely to shaping positive outcomes for peace, security and development. The United Nations should be encouraged to leverage the comparative advantages of regional organizations, which possess a better understanding of the dynamics and root causes of conflicts in their respective regions. Be that as it may, it is important to bear in mind recent experiences in the Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia, among other places, which have revealed some key areas and stresses that stretch the limits and capacity of regional organizations in dealing with such challenging situations. Without sufficient financial and capacity-building support, the ability to deliver will not match the aspirations and determinations of regional organizations, particularly in harsh and challenging situations. It is also equally important to guard against burden-sharing becoming burden-shifting, as unrealistic expectations are placed on regional organizations that have yet to build full capacity. In that context, Malaysia appreciates and commends the African Union for its leadership in taking ownership of the region’s peace and security agenda. We note, however, that its ambition is severely constrained by the lack of necessary resources, particularly in terms of flexible, sustainable and predictable funding. We commend and fully support the ongoing efforts and commitments of the AU to enhance self-reliance in that regard. It is for those reasons that we welcome the bold and forward-looking positions adopted by the AU leaders during the twenty-seventh African Union Summit, held in Kigali in July, to establish and operationalize the African Union Peace Fund. As such, we are pleased to support the draft resolution (S/2016/977), jointly initiated by Senegal and the United States, scheduled to be adopted today. We believe that unanimous adoption of the draft resolution will send a strong message of support from the Council to the African Union’s member States. We are convinced that the draft resolution is a necessary step towards further cementing the close coordination and cooperation between the two organizations. In conclusion, we hope that discussions today generate more ideas and strategies in order to deepen and strengthen cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union with a view to enhancing the capacity of the international community and regional organizations to respond effectively to emerging threats in the African region and beyond.

I now give the floor to His Excellency Mr. João Pedro Vale de Almeida, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations.

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union (EU) and its 28 member States. The candidate countries of Turkey, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania; countries; Bosnia and Herzegovina, country of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidate; as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Armenia and Georgia, align themselves with this statement. At the outset, let me first thank you, Mr. President, for having taken the initiative to organize this debate on such an important topic and for the very good concept note (S/2016/966, annex). I would also like to thank the representatives of the United Nations and of the African Union (AU) who are present and who have provided very helpful briefings. The European Union encourages and supports intensified cooperation in the area of security and peacekeeping between the United Nations and the African Union, as it has developed over the course of the past 10 years, since the launch in 2006 of the United Nations 10-year capacity-building programme for the African Union. For its part, the European Union has always defended effective multilateralism and has focused on strengthening its cooperation with the United Nations and regional organizations, in particular the African Union. We have also invested in strong triangular cooperation in order to meet the immediate challenges as well as to develop capacities in a global and long-term perspective. The added value of that cooperation is clearly illustrated by the results of our joint efforts in Somalia, Mali and the Central African Republic, as in other parts of Africa. Secondly, we would like to express our deep gratitude for Africa’s contribution to the difficult task of maintaining peace, whether under Blue Helmets or as part of a regional force. As all troop-contributing countries know, this contribution sometimes goes hand in hand with a tragic human cost. We welcome the reviews conducted in 2015 on peacekeeping operations, the peacebuilding architecture and the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). We hope that the follow-up work will include concrete measures to improve the global security architecture, with full respect for the role of regional organizations and the United Nations partnership with the African Union. The European Union also promotes the engagement of the United Nations and regional organizations with civil society in peacebuilding, conflict prevention and mediation. The European Union and the African Union have a long-standing and solid partnership in the area of peace and security. Among the five priorities identified at the fourth European Union-Africa Summit, held in 2014, cooperation on matters of peace and security is by far the most important of the five identified, notably from a financial point of view. Our ongoing political and financial commitment to support African-led peace operations on the continent will be reaffirmed at the highest level at the upcoming fifth European Union-Africa Summit, to be held in Côte d’Ivoire in November 2017. Our continuing financial commitment was recently illustrated by the release in August of €50 million for the Multinational Joint Task Force against Boko Haram, and in the €178 million for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Consultations are under way in Brussels on the next — the sixteenth — package for AMISOM, which will be used to finance its troops’ salaries through March 2017. The European Union has contributed more than €2 billion to the African Union through the the African Peace Facility (APF) since it was established, in 2004. Most of those resources support African peace operations, which have played a fundamental role in maintaining peace and stability in the continent. The European Union’s broad, sustainable financial support for peace and security in Africa goes far beyond that instrument, to include national and regional cooperation by our member States. However, financial resources for the APF are strongly solicited. For the African Union Mission in Somalia alone, by the end of 2015 the European Union had contributed more than €1 billion. At this rate, the APF will soon be unable to continue to support AMISOM and to respond to any emerging priorities. (spoke in English) Increasingly, there is widespread recognition that Africa and the European Union need to work together against the menace of terrorism, which is not constrained by borders. Terrorism is an existential threat for several African countries, and it needs to be opposed through increased international cooperation. This asymmetrical danger requires improved approaches, necessitating a long-term security response and long-term troop deployments, which increasingly need sustainable financing — something that is difficult to achieve solely through the African Peace Facility The European Union welcomed the important decision taken by the African Union Summit in Kigali, held in July, to finance the African Union Peace Fund by introducing a levy of 0.2 per cent on eligible imports that would automatically flow to the African Union. The mobilization of additional African resources is a sign of strong ambition and ownership by the continent. The African Union Finance Ministers meeting in Addis Ababa in September took some important steps towards the implementation of the groundbreaking decision at the AU Summit in Kigali. We look forward to the official launch of the fund, expected during the forthcoming AU Summit in January 2017. In that context, I would like to salute Mr. Kaberuka’s chairmanship and the good work we are developing with him. The EU is also following with interest the outcome of the the African Union Political and Security Committee retreat held in Lusaka from 7 to 10 November, which was presented with an ambitious yet practicable master road map as a milestone towards achieving the aspirations of Africans for the continent they want, as elaborated in Agenda 2063, in particular aspiration 4, for a peaceful and secure Africa. There is recognition within the European Union of the need to reorient our financial support towards more practical, physical capacities such as logistics and deployment. The bulk of APF funding to date has gone to stipends for African troops serving in peace support operations, paid to their Governments via the African Union. While that funding remains necessary, and important in some cases, better complementarity and synergy between APF support and African Peace and Security Architecture is needed. For that reason, future APF support will be geared more towards prevention and mediation, and its support to peace operations will move partially away from stipend-oriented funding — in favour of the strengthening of operational capacities such as logistics, medical support, strategic lift and communication and information systems — with the objective of creating sustainable African capabilities to address present and future peace challenges. Following a request from the African Union, we have agreed to mobilize funding for the third phase of the African Peace and Security Architecture support programme for the period 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2018, in an amount of nearly €30 million. The third phase of the support programme will follow the road map structure of the Peace and Security Architecture, while building on the support provided since 2011, and will contribute to further strengthening the capacities of the African Union Commission, the regional economic communities — the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the East African Community, the Economic Community of Central African States, the Economic Community of West African States, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the Southern African Development Community — and two regional mechanisms — the North African Regional Capacity and the Eastern Africa Standby Force — to fulfil their respective mandates under the African Peace and Security Architecture. The road map also maps out a shared way forward on the results to be achieved by all stakeholders under the African Peace and Security Architecture to reduce existing capacity gaps in the operationalization of the Architecture. It clearly identifies measurable, specific objectives and outputs to be achieved to that end in each of its priority areas. In the same vein, the strategic headquarters in Addis Ababa need to be fully operationalized, which is one of the goals of the current support programme for the African Peace and Security Architecture. The EU stands ready to provide technical expertise, technologies and training to achieve that very important goal. In conclusion, we remain strongly committed to an ever-stronger partnership with the AU, as well as increased triangular EU-United Nations-AU cooperation, in order to fully achieve the establishment of lasting African peace and security capacities, in full respect of African ownership.

Members of the Council have before them document S/2016/977, which the text of a draft resolution submitted by Senegal and the United States of America. 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 2320 (2016). I shall now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements following the voting.

My delegation supported and voted in favour of resolution 2320 (2016), for we are aware of how important it is to strengthen cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union (AU). Such cooperation is one of the cornerstones of the maintenance of international peace and security, which is further based on the pre-eminent role of the African Union to sow the seeds for peace and security in Africa through the peaceful settlement of conflicts, as well as by providing financing for peace and security. My country, which is very proud to be a founding member of the African Union, fully subscribes to the need to strengthen cooperation between our two organizations — the United Nations and the AU — in all areas and aspects, particularly in international peace and security. Such a partnership is necessary if we are to achieve our commonly set goals in this area, commensurate with Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. Resolution 2320 (2016) addresses issues pertaining to United Nations financing of African Union peace support operations, particularly the Peace Fund. Resolution 2320 (2016) also refers to the AU resolution to take responsibility for its share of the financing of peace support operations, part of the concept of African ownership of these peace operations, which we support and would like to underscore the importance of. Discussions between member States of the African Union are ongoing in the framework of the relevant AU mechanisms in order to further expand upon how we will define the means to ensure the shared financing decided upon by the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government. Along the same lines, we shall take actions that are tangible and can be properly implemented to open the door to such financing. On this particular point, my delegation calls for a swift conclusion of AU discussions so that we are in a position to define and establish the measures that need to be adopted by the United Nations in response, so that support that can be given to peacekeeping and peace support operations. We hope that this will lead to predictable, flexible and sustainable financing and support AU peace operations.

We are convinced of the importance of strengthening cooperation between the United Nations and African regional and subregional organizations to ensure peace and security on the continent. The Russian delegation therefore voted in favour of resolution 2320 (2016). However, we are forced to note that, during work on the resolution, the co-sponsors did not take on board a number of important amendments from some delegations, ours included. We are puzzled by the refusal to include in the resolution references to the basic principles of peacekeeping, which have been approved by Member States many times. We cannot shake the impression that this is a cover-up for the intention to deploy African peacekeeping operations against the will of host parties and in violation of the principle of impartiality. The universal basic principles of peacekeeping are obligatory for any operation, especially those approved by the Security Council. A paradox arises in that regard when United Nations support is requested, but United-Nations-approved principles are ignored. The resolution is also replete with specific language likely more characteristic of the General Assembly and its Fifth Committee than of the Security Council. We call attention to the fact that there was a lack of unity among African delegations on the Security Council in agreeing on the resolution. The 29 September communiqué of the African Union Peace and Security Council calls for such unity. As we understand it, the African Union itself has not yet settled on a final position on the modalities for funding its own peace operations, and it intends to draft such during the Summit to be held in Addis Ababa in January. We are also unhappy with the working methods of the co-sponsors, who did not fully take into account the legitimate concerns of several delegations and stubbornly stuck to their language, which made it more difficult to achieve consensus on this very important resolution.