S/PV.8781 Security Council

The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. The Security Council will now proceed to the consideration of its annual report to the General Assembly, for the period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. The draft report has been provided to the members of the Council. The introduction to the draft report was prepared by the delegation of the Niger, with the participation of the other members of the Council. The body of the report was prepared by the Secretariat. I should like to express my appreciation to the Niger and to the Secretariat for their respective contributions. I should like to point out that the draft report was prepared in accordance with the notes by the President of 30 August 2017 (S/2017/507) and 27 December 2019 (S/2019/997). I now give the floor to the representative of the Niger, whose delegation was responsible for drafting the introduction to this year’s annual report.

At the outset, allow me to thank you, Mr. President, for organizing this meeting to allow the Security Council to adopt the annual report on its activities, the drafting of whose introduction my country, the Niger, had the honour to coordinate. I would also like to thank all of the members of the Council and all those who participated in, and contributed to, our discussions with a view to finalizing the Council’s report for the year 2020. I extend special thanks to the Secretariat, in particular the Security Council Affairs Division, which throughout the drafting of the report spared no effort to provide us with the necessary technical advice. Lastly, I express my sincere thanks to the delegations of Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia and South Africa — which were members of the Council last year — for their valuable contributions. Looking back over the course of 2020, the first thing that comes to mind is the coronavirus disease pandemic and how it upended our lives and ways of working. The Security Council was not spared, insofar as, in mid-March 2020, under the wise leadership of Ambassador Zhang Jun, its members had to turn to virtual meetings in order to make it possible for the Council to exercise its mandate of safeguarding international peace and security. The Council’s proceedings were therefore unique, leading to the holding of video-teleconferences, with eventually the holding of some hybrid meetings that included in-person gatherings. The draft annual report before the Council, which provides a summary of the activities and decisions of the Council for the past year, is the outcome of our collective efforts. As such, we hope it will meet with the approval of all members. We also hope that this document, which we will adopt in the next few moments, will provide the States Members of the United Nations and other interested organizations with useful information they might need in the course of their activities. In conclusion, I would like to pay tribute to all the experts on my team, who were able, in the allotted time frame, to skilfully complete the important task given to us by the Council.

I thank the representative of the Niger and his team for their efforts in preparing the draft report. It is my understanding that the Council is ready to proceed to the adoption of the draft annual report. May I take it that the draft report is adopted by the Council? There being no objection, it is so decided. This decision will be reflected in a note by the President of the Security Council, to be issued as document S/2021/500.