Permanent Representative of Belarus speaks at the UN Security Council meeting
11.01.2017At the UN headquarters in New York, the United Nations Security Council at the initiative of the Swedish Presidency held open debate on January 10 on the topic “Conflict prevention and sustaining peace”. Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the UN Andrei Dapkiunas took part the discussion.
In his statement, the head of the Belarusian Mission to the UN mentioned that the erosion in the past couple of decades of the rules- and principles-based environment of international engagement has been steadily increasing the risk of a global nuclear annihilation conflict between the world’s major powers – be it by intent, mistake or tragic coincidence.
In these circumstances and in the absence of agreement between the major nuclear powers of their total primary responsibility for the prevention of war and the establishment of a global system of collective peacekeeping, all attempts of the international community, including within the framework of the United Nations, to find a lasting solution to the non-global conflict will be futile. By definition of the Permanent Representative, these efforts mean micromanaging the system deregulated at the macro level.
According to Andrei Dapkiunas, the world should realise the true degree of fragility of our environment – physical, social, cultural and political – and stop reckless stress testing of the degree of endurance of the world’s sustainability.
The Belarusian diplomat raised the issue of the special responsibility of the world’s most militarily powerful nations for leadership in creating and sustaining the legal system of the collective peacekeeping.
Regarding the role of the UN Security Council in this process Andrei Dapkiunas suggested that the true measure of success of work of the Council was not the number of meetings held and resolutions adopted, but the ability of each member of the Council to contribute to the creation within this one of the main UN bodies of the sense of greater moral urgency for the dialogue and mutual empathy among the big powers.
The head of the Belarusian Mission to the United Nations expressed the view that the Security Council is of little use to the world as a political theatre. However, the world desperately needs a Security Council defined not so much by the turning wheels of its political machinery as by sincere interaction of human beings who make the most commendable effort of building dialogue for better mutual understanding.
