S/PV.8846 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/2021/760, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2021/723, which contains the report of the Secretary-General on Somalia. 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 2592 (2021). I shall now give the floor to those members of the Council wishing to make statements after the voting.

I would like to start by expressing my appreciation at seeing you, Sir, preside over this meeting. The situation in Somalia is at a critical juncture. Even as we speak, with the steady rollout of elections the international community is facing a major adjustment in its security arrangements in the country. The renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) will be by and large conducive to helping Somalia to achieve its political and security transition. Against that backdrop, China voted in favour of resolution 2592 (2021). However, at the same time China continues to have concerns on individual paragraphs. The text calls on UNSOM to work together with the international financial institutions and to battle climate change through financing for development. That is inconsistent with the consensus reflected in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which calls on the developed countries to provide financial and technical support to the developing countries. One wonders if this might not be an attempt by the developed countries to shirk their responsibilities in the area of climate financing. The twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will take place in November, and China calls on the countries concerned to fully meet their obligations and implement their climate pledges. Furthermore, during consultations on the draft, even as members continued to have concerns on the text and were working hard to reach a consensus, the penholder hastened to put the draft to the vote. That was not a constructive move. We hope that the penholder will fully respect the views of Council members and refrain from misusing the powers conferred by the penholdership, with a view to maintaining unity and cooperation within the Council.

We would like to welcome you, Sir, as Foreign Secretary of India, to the President’s chair. The Russian Federation voted in favour of resolution 2592 (2021), on extending the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia, put forward by the United Kingdom. At the same time, and similar to what was said by my Chinese colleague, we would like to express our regret at the fact that the British side this year made insistent efforts to introduce into the document a great deal of additional language on the climate issue. We understand that the droughts, floods, plagues of locusts and other natural disasters affecting Somalia are compounding the situation in the country. However, we see no reason to use the resolution on Somalia to enshrine in the Security Council mandate activities relating to efforts in the area of climate change. We believe that it would also be wrong for the special political mission to work on this issue because that would dilute its most important task of extending assistance to the Federal Government in conducting extremely important elections, as well as in the continued process of transferring responsibility for security from the African Union Mission in Somalia to the national security forces. We are convinced that the issues related to climate change should be tackled by the specialized bodies of the United Nations. Involving the Security Council in this issue is not desirable and is counterproductive. We are also concerned by the continuing attempts of the authors of the document to include therein a great deal of language on human rights issues. Our colleagues from Somalia do not need to be mentored by the Security Council on how to work to protect and defend human rights. They are perfectly capable of preparing and implementing draft legislation on those matters themselves. We need to take into account the specific features of Somali society. Artificial recipes from outside will hardly be successful in Somalia.

Like others who have preceded me, let me welcome you to the Security Council, Mr. President. I would like to begin by saying the United States commends the penholder for the cooperative spirit in which it led this process, in our view. The United States voted in favour of resolution 2592 (2021) because we remain committed to Somalia. We commend Special Representative of the Secretary-General Swan’s work and his leadership, which has supported progress in Somalia’s electoral process. The United States supports the resolution because tailored, appropriate support and assistance from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) to the Somali people remains critical during this time of political transition. This is a moment of tremendous opportunity for Somalia, and we would urge the Federal Government of Somalia to continue to promote cooperation with the federal member states and to closely coordinate with all partners to ensure that their missions and that of UNSOM remain fit for purpose. This will help Somalia resume work on stabilizing the country, addressing terrorism and providing security for its people. Let me end by reaffirming that the United States is committed to promoting the security and prosperity of the Somali people.