S/PV.8719 Security Council

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2020/111, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by Germany and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 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 14 votes in favour, none against and 1 abstention. The draft resolution has been adopted as resolution 2509 (2020). I shall now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements.

Russia abstained in the voting on resolution 2509 (2020), submitted by Germany and the United Kingdom, which extends the sanctions regime on Libya, as the text did not include our important and duly justified comments. The sponsors of the resolution included new language on the illicit importation of oil products into Libya. We would like to underscore that the negative impact of importing oil products is not that obvious for the Libyan economy. Now in Libya, due to the decline in production of its own processing faciliies, three quarters of oil products, by volume, are being imported nd a great part of the imported products is diverted by armed groups to the internal black market or to other countries. We must not forget about the needs of the Libyans who live in the east of the country and are not getting any oil products delivered to them. In that regard, we would like to underscore that the natural resources of Libya should be used for the good of the people and should not serve the interests of third States. All questions pertaining to the control of oil infrastructure and export operations should be decided by the Libyans themselves.

Libya still faces multiple challenges, such as the fragile security situation, rampant terrorist groups and outstanding refugee and migration issues. The international community should respect Libya’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, and support the advancement of the United Nations-brokered Libyan- led and -owned political process. Given the current grave situation in Libya, the international community must continue its strict implementation of the arms embargo and refrain from military intervention or other actions that might aggravate the conflict. China therefore voted in favour of resolution 2509 (2020), just adopted. Nevertheless, it is China’s consistent belief that sanctions are not an end but a means, and they should always serve the political settlement of relevant issues. When the Security Council takes action on the extension of the Libyan sanctions regime, it must base its decision on full consultations, and should send positive messages to the international community and interested countries that a given extension is conducive to a political settlement of the Libyan issue.