Chair,
Norway welcomes this opportunity to discuss the status of UN's Special Political Missions. Preventing and resolving armed conflict and sustaining peace should be the United Nations' top priority.
The Special Political Missions are the most operational end of the UN's political efforts in the field, and they need our full support. In an age with conflicts increasingly having regional dimensions and actors we need approaches that are flexible and suited to cross-border issues in terms of preventive diplomacy and regional co-operation. As we have seen in for example Syria, the Sahel and many other areas.
The need for such missions has been increasing over the last decade because they are effective in the field at a low cost. If we fail to support them properly, the alternative will often be large scale peace operations and large scale humanitarian responses. We are convinced that a solid foundation for funding and backstopping such missions would only save, not increase UN spending.
We welcome the UN’s efforts to take a more holistic approach, we need to look at the Special Political Missions as part of a spectrum of peace operations. We are also encouraged by the focus on more coordination and interaction between SPMs and the Peacebuilding Commission. We welcome the increased attention to climate change as a driver of conflict and preventive measures to meet these challenges.
Norway is encouraged by the Secretary-General’s commitment to reform, not only in the area of peace and security, but also with regard to management and development.
We look forward to listen to other Member States and their views on how we can enhance the effectiveness and coherence of Special Political Missions and to working with fellow member states from all regions in support of continued reforms.
Thank you.