S/PV.9031 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/2022/387, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by 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 2630 (2022). I shall now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements after the voting.

The Russian Federation supported resolution 2630 (2022), prepared by the United States, on extending the mandate of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) for another six months. We continue to view Blue Helmets as an important factor in guaranteeing stability in the region and believe there is a need for them to assist both States in their efforts to find a mutually acceptable solution to the border dispute. Nevertheless, we all know that problems in cooperating with the local population exist in many peacekeeping missions. Unfortunately, the peacekeepers in Abyei are no exception. We recently saw a number of protests by local communities and cases where they directly prevented the mission from carrying out its mandate. Therefore, during our work on the resolution, we put forward a constructive proposal to note the successful quick-impact projects implemented by the peacekeepers, which have proven to be effective on the ground. We regret that our American colleagues did not listen to that idea, which might have created favourable conditions for further peacekeeping efforts in Abyei. On the whole, we believe that achieving an agreement on the final status of the disputed region is possible only through joint efforts by the two States, without any outside pressure. It is therefore particularly important that there be an impartial approach and a balanced position from the informal penholders on the Abyei file in the Security Council when it comes to any issues that arise concerning the work of UNISFA. We hope that our American colleagues will take that consideration into account in their future work.