August 12, 2024
Mr. President,
We welcome your personal participation in the Council’s debate on addressing the historical injustice with regard to the participation of African States in the work of the UNSC. We listened very carefully to the briefings by the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly. We are also grateful to Ms. Mbete for her meaningful analysis of the situation around redressing historical injustices against Africa.
This issue is of particular importance to us, since the Russian Federation is one of the most consistent supporters of the Security Council reform so that its membership reflects the multipolar nature of the modern world. Our basic approach to addressing this important issue has not changed since the launch of the reform process in 2009. We are unequivocal in our support for the expansion of the Council solely through including developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. We see this as a logical and long overdue step towards addressing historical injustice affecting first and foremost the states of the African continent. The current make-up of the Security Council in no way reflects the total number of states in Africa, nor Africa’s current role in international affairs.
At the same time, I think we can all agree that a reformed Council must remain an effective and credible body. In this regard, its membership should not be excessively broad. It’s obvious that if the UNSC had 25-30 members, it would not be able to effectively fulfil its mandate. In addition, the Security Council should retain at its disposal such an effective mechanism as the right of veto, which was laid down by the UN founding states in the UN Charter. It is that instrument that guarantees that the Council takes balanced and realistic decisions, which can make a difference in resolving armed conflicts in various regions of the world. This mechanism is utilized, inter alia, in the interests of Africa. For instance, exactly a year ago, Russia’s veto made it possible to prevent the extension of irrelevant counterproductive sanctions against Mali.
Mr. President,
Unfortunately, we can observe that in recent years our colleagues have taken quite a conjectural approach when it comes to African membership in the Council. The arguments they provide clearly show that what they really seek is having their NATO allies in the “pool” of the Council’s permanent members rather than merely ensuring the membership of the Global South. At the same time, it is quite obvious that Western countries, which strictly adhere to bloc approaches, are already significantly overrepresented in the Security Council. We call on our African colleagues to remain vigilant and make no mistake: it will not be possible to address historical injustice towards Africa while simultaneously allowing new Western members to join the UN Security Council. What should be done to address this injustice is to substantially increase the proportion of African and, in general, developing states as compared to the representation of former colonial powers and their allies who seek to maintain their dominant position in world affairs at all costs, providing no justification for it.
Mr. President,
It is our conviction that the task of redressing the historical injustice towards Africa should not be limited to the UNSC reform alone. The situation is also grim with respect to other key issues associated with the multilateral world order. And these issues are no less, and perhaps even more important in terms of promoting Africa’s core interests. We can clearly see how, against the backdrop of their vanishing hegemony, the countries of the West are acting in the spirit of colonial times, striving vigorously to preserve their privileged positions.
The consequences of colonialism affect all spheres of life of African society and significantly hinder the continent from gaining a durable role in world affairs. Direct oppression was substantiated by sophisticated forms of neo-colonialism, which includes, among other things, perpetuating commodity dependence of African countries’ economies, imposing strict IMF programs, and facilitating brain drain. These factors trigger economic underdevelopment, poverty and political instability in African countries. What directly hinders the development of African countries and undermines their sovereignty is the growing debt burden. Thus, according to UNCTAD, over recent 12 years, Africa’s total debt has increased by 183% reaching $1.8 trillion, which is four times as high as the national GDP growth across the continent.
Neither can we ignore the issue of mobilizing domestic financing for development, which is critically important for the African continent. Africa loses up to $150 billion annually due to the siphoning of assets. Most of these assets end up in Western countries or in jurisdictions under their control.
Yet another factor that has a negative impact on African development is the unlawful restrictive measures that are currently in place in nine African countries. And this injustice and neo-colonial discrimination is something the Western countries do not wish to address, preferring to speechify about some lofty matters instead.
We firmly believe that economic support to developing countries by Western states is not a gesture of goodwill but a moral duty, which should be fulfilled in order to redress the injustice created by the exploitative colonial system of the past and exacerbated by the international financial system of today. After all, despite resounding statements by Western donors, development assistance remains meager, below the 0.7% of GNP required in line with the international commitments. This issue continues to provoke a heated debate at the negotiations on the draft Pact of the Future. What is voiced here is the lack of representation of the Global South in managing structures not only of the Bretton Woods institutions, but even in the leadership of UN development institutions, funds and programs. It is unacceptable that for decades leadership positions have been held by representatives of only one regional group and that the secretariats of financial institutions have been de facto privatized by the largest donors. We hope that with the assistance of the co-fasilitators of the negotiation process, one of which is Namibia, much-needed progress in democratizing the global governance system will be achieved .
Mr. President,
In the context of the deteriorating general humanitarian situation in Africa, the overt politicization of humanitarian assistance by Western donors is something that really surprises. For example, UN humanitarian Appeals for many African countries in 2023 were only funded to a level of 20-30%, and the same trends can be observed this year. At the same time, for Ukraine, which is a food exporter, the humanitarian appeal has had record funding, which is over 70%. It is also obvious that the amount of money spent on Western military assistance to Ukraine could easily “plug the hole” in most UN humanitarian plans for Africa and can easily improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people. However, Western politicians and businessmen prefer instead to supply weapons to hot spots, profiting from the grief and suffering of people. The situation is similar in international peacebuilding efforts. We note that Western donors provide financial support primarily for the projects that are in line with their priorities, while the urgent needs of African countries regarding infrastructure and technology have often been ignored. Isn’t all of this a manifestation of historical injustice towards Africa?
It is high time to put an end to this and move to a just world order redressing the artificial imbalance of the past times when most of Africa was still colonized. Some steps in the right direction have been already taken, namely the recent inclusion of the African Union in the G20, as well as the expansion of BRICS to accept largely African countries. Undoubtedly, this will open up opportunities for greater mainstreaming of the continent’s priorities in discussions on key global issues.
Returning to the main subject of our meeting, I would like to stress that we can take a number of practical steps right away to significantly strengthen the voice of African states in the Council. And some of the steps do not necessarily require specific agreements on UNSC reform to be achieved. Thus, an obvious remnant of the outdated colonial logic in the Council is the current distribution of penholdership for country and regional “files” between former colonial powers. Here is a very unfortunate situation in place. Even though most of the peoples of Africa have gained their independence, their former colonizers are still keeping an eye on them from the Council Chamber. For years we have been consistently exposing this ugly situation, but all efforts to remedy it have been invariably sabotaged by Western countries.
Mr. President,
The USSR was always a sincere and true friend of Africa, which helped African countries to cast off the shackles of colonialism and exploitation and to stand firmly on its feet. Today, the same friendly and constructive policy towards Africa is pursued by Russia. Therefore, our African friends can always count on our help and support. And they can also be sure that we will continue to “bring to light” those who, as we say, “on the back of Africa” are trying to drag new Western members into the UNSC and thus retain their influence in the Council and in the world as a whole in order to continue to exploit your states and hinder your development.
Thank you for your attention.