Credit:  By Gary Raynaldo /   ©Diplomatic Times /  Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation at UN world headquarters New York  Sept. 27, 2019.

By Gary Raynaldo    /  DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –  NEW YORK –  The Russian Federation and three African members of the UN Security Council (Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa)  held a ministerial session last Friday for  strengthening of peace and security in Africa.  Russia holds the presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of September. “We held one more ministerial event of the UN Security Council yesterday, where we discussed the strengthening of peace and security in Africa. We organised it together with three African members of the UN Security Council,” Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation told journalists at a press briefing last Friday at UN world headquarters following his address before the General Assembly.

DIPLOMATIC TIME VIDEO /  Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation  at  press briefing  Sept. 27, 2019,  at UN world headquarters following his address before the General Assembly. 

“I believe that these two meetings were very fruitful. At the former talks we outlined additional opportunities that must be used to fight terrorism more effectively, by using the potential of regional organisations. The latter meeting has shown once again that African problems prevail on the agenda of the highest UN body, the Security Council. Our activities must be based on the “African solutions to African problems” principle, so that the Africans themselves use their experience and practices to address African problems and to help find compromises between the conflicting sides in any African country and any part of the African continent.”

-Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation,  Sept. 27, 2019 -United Nations. 

The aim of the UN Security Council briefing was “to review the existing mechanisms to effectively support African and regional responses to the current threats to peace and security on the African continent, with a view to enhancing regional and international efforts in addressing these challenges in a strategic, sustained and coordinated manner”,  according to the Concept Note.   Essentially,   the concept note highlights that conflicts in Africa are a substantial part of the Security Council’s agenda and “therefore require a fair share of the UN resources allocated for conflict prevention, peacekeeping and post-conflict peacebuilding.”

DIPLOMATIC TIME VIDEO /  Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation  at  press briefing  Sept. 27, 2019,  at UN world headquarters following his address before the General Assembly. 

Russia Foreign Minister Met With US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at United Nations

 “We discussed all aspects of strategic stability, including the conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, namely in Syria and Libya, as well as Afghanistan. New sanctions are adopted against Russia, which is demonised almost every day if not every hour. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said today regarding the scandal over the telephone conversation between US President Trump and President of Ukraine Zelensky that she thinks Russia “has a hand in this.” I believe this is paranoia, very obviously so. But when serious politicians and, subsequently, the media outlets who claim to be serious, spread such allegations around the world, the official who is responsible for issuing visas may think it would be better to play safe in this situation. In other words, problems should be analysed comprehensively and attempts should be made to normalise the overall atmosphere. This would help to restore Russian-US relations to a state everyone wants to see them in. Such expectations have been voiced by all our partners in both the emerging economies and Europe.”

-Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation