African Countries Can Make Responsible Decisions On Ensuring Peace, Security - Nebenzia

African States can make responsible decisions when it comes to ensuring peace and security on their continent, Russia's envoy to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said on Thursday

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2023) African States can make responsible decisions when it comes to ensuring peace and security on their continent, Russia's envoy to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said on Thursday.

Nebenzia's comments came when addressing the session's topic of African Union (AU) led peace support operations, and related issues.

"Madame President, now African colleagues are able to take responsible decisions on ensuring peace and security in their region," Nebenzia said during a UN Security Council meeting on Peace and Security in Africa.

Nebenzia added that Russia supports the position expressed by African states in a consensus letter from February's AU Summit, where they stressed the necessity for the UN to allocate AU's peace support operations with adequate, predictable, and sustainable funding.

The ambassador expressed Russia's opinion that it is not normal for AU's peace keeping operations to be depending on irregular assistance either from individual countries or associations related to them, adding that African led operations should be based on African solutions.

Moreover, Nebenzia underscored that when it comes to peace keeping operations on the African continent, AU led missions in contrasts with the UN have the advantage and ability of reacting swiftly to emerging threats and ensure the readiness of their forces.

"We're convinced that Africans better than anyone else, know the nature and root causes of instability in their region," Nebenzia pursued.

Russia is ready to participate in substantive discussion on issues related to AU peacekeeping operations under the premises of a future negotiation process or Security Council resolution on the issue, Nebenzia added.