S/PV.9053 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/2022/450, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by France. 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, no votes against and 1 abstention. The draft resolution has been adopted as resolution 2635 (2022). I shall now give the floor to those members of the Council who wish to make statements after the voting.

The Russian Federation abstained in the voting on resolution 2635 (2022), prepared by France, on extending the special inspection regime designed to implement the arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya. I underline that Russia, along with other members of the Security Council, was at the source of this inspection regime. We had hopes that the mechanism would make its contribution to decreasing the illicit trade in weapons and would help bring about the long- awaited political settlement of the protracted conflict in the country. Unfortunately, that did not happen. What did happen was that the opportunities of the regime to inspect vessels were basically taken over by the European Union (EU). We greatly regret that the EU Naval Force Mediterranean Operation IRINI has, over recent years, demonstrated very low levels of effectiveness in assisting the implementation of the provisions of the Libyan arms embargo. During the entire period of its action, there has been no successful seizure of any contraband goods, and the same assessment can be given to its predecessor mission, Operation SOPHIA. Furthermore, the work of the EU Naval Force has not always been transparent. For example, according to its own data, it had exclusive channels of communication with the panel of experts of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1970 (2011), whereas members of that subsidiary body of the Council were never briefed on the modalities of such communications. In some cases, the activities of the EU Naval Force were characterized by a selective approach to certain vessels flying flags of particular States. We consider the incident involving the detention of the Royal Diamond 7 tanker, which involved numerous violations by the EU Naval Force, to be particularly egregious. For reasons that are not at all clear, Brussels says that the incident was in fact a great success. It is not quite clear what happened to the confiscated cargo of standard jet fuel that our EU colleagues planned to sell on the commercial market, thereby circumventing the provisions of resolution 2292 (2016). In the coming year, we will continue to closely monitor the work of Operation IRINI to ensure full compliance with the arms embargo. The focus of our attention will be whether it is effective in combating flows of illegal weapons and whether it is in line with the law of the sea and the mandate stipulated in resolution 2292 (2016). We will also provide a legal assessment of the actions of the EU Naval Force.

There are no more names inscribed on the list of the speakers.