General Assembly Security Council

PERMANENT MISSION OF INDIA

NEW YORK

Statement by Ambassador Bhagwant Singh Bishnoi, Acting Permanent Representative of India to the UN at the UN Security Council Open

Debate on Peace Operations: The UN - AU Partnership and its Evolution(New York, 16 December  2014)

 

Mr. President,

We congratulate you on your assumption of the Presidency of the Security Council and we thank you Your Excellency Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Minister of Foreign Affairs & African Integration of Chad for personally chairing this open debate on 'Peace Operations:  The UN- AU Partnership and Its Evolution'.  We also thank the Secretary General and President Pierre Buyoya, High Representative of the African Union for Mali and the Sahel for their remarks.

 

Mr. President,

2. At the outset, we join the Secretary General and other speakers to condemn in the strongest possible terms the horrific attack on innocent school children in Pakistan.  We cannot but feel a sense of deep revulsion and horror.  Our hearts go out to the grief stricken families of the innocent children killed and injured in this barbaric attack.

 

Mr. President,

3. Our relationship with Africa is rooted in history.  It goes back, even much before our common struggle against colonialism.  With a strong political foundation, it has - over the past many decades - also acquired a vibrant economic dimension.  At the same time, India is the largest overall contributor to UN peacekeeping operations.  Having sent more than170,000 Indian troops to 43 of the 69 UNPKOs mandated so far, we have considerable experience in this field.  We, therefore, feel we are well placed to comment on the subject at hand.

 

4. We recognize the role of regional organizations, particularly the African Union, in peacekeeping operations.  We also support the strengthening of cooperation between the United Nations and African Union for enhanced effectiveness of peacekeeping operations.  At the same time, we also need to emphasize that, while regional arrangements can play an appropriate role in assisting the UN in maintaining peace, the primacy of the UN cannot be denied.  The UN cannot disengage with the continent by contracting peacekeeping to regional arrangements, whose role must be to reinforce rather than to replace that of the UN.  We need to also start worrying if the impartiality of the UN forces is called into question.  This is a possibility that cannot be ruled out with regionalization and sub-regionalisationof peacekeeping.

 

5. The concept paper prepared by the Presidency does useful service by drawing attention to the financing of AU peacekeeping operations.  It is undeniable that the provision of sustainable and predictable final support is at the core of the success of any peacekeeping operation.  The Prodi report had recommended the option of funds from the UNassessed peacekeeping budget being used to support UN-authorized AU peacekeeping operations for a period of no longer than six months with each decision taken on a case by case basis, and with approval by the UN Security Council and the General Assembly, and with the AU mission transitioning to UN management within six months.  The logic for meeting the expenditure from the UN peacekeeping budget seems clear as the AU mission is doing only what is required to be done by the UN and is so doing because the UN has requested it to do so because it does not itself have the capacity for doing so on a rapid basis.  Our recommendation would, therefore, be for the Security Council to request the Secretary General to draw up a roadmap for the implementation of the recommendations of the Prodi Panel.  However, it may be infructuous for us to express our views if the Council adopts its outcome document - as it has done today - before opening the floor to non-members.  While we greatly appreciate the tradition of organizing open debates, we cannot but question the utility if this practice of hurriedly adopting outcomes is continued.

 

6. We have closely perused the recommendation given in the section of the concept paper that deals with managing mission transitions.  These recommendations deserve serious consideration.   Also, important, however,is the very useful contribution to this objective already made by the strengthening of the UN Office to the AU in Addis Ababa.  The strengthening of this Office has helped to smoothen transitions.  This is an example of how simple actions on the ground can become enablers with disproportionate benefits.

 

7. Enhancing collaboration between the African Union, Security Council and the UN Security Council is another area that could, in our view, benefit from simple actions on the ground rather than anything more grandiose.  We note the suggestion that elected African members of the Security Council should be provided with special observer status in the Peace and Security Council of the African Union.  It would, however, be beyond the remitof this Council to make any recommendation on the manner in which an AU institution should be structured.

 

8. In conclusion, Mr. President, we would like to commend the African Union for its cooperation with the UN Security Council.  We also take this opportunity to urge both organizations to further strengthen this cooperation with the objective of maintaining of international peace and security.

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