U.S. UN REPRESENTATIVE'S REMARKS ON THE AFRICAN UNION AND ADVANCING PEACE

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT  
Ambassador David Pressman
Alternate Representative to the UN for Special Political Affairs 
New York, NY
December 16, 2014
AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Mr. President. I want to express the United States’ profound condolences to the victims of the horrific Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan. This gruesome attack deliberately targeted Pakistan's – indeed, all of our – most precious and sacred resource: our children. Cowardly and senseless violence like this only increases our resolve to fight terrorism and violent extremism.

Mr. Minister, thank you for being here and convening this important debate. We thank the Secretary-General and High Representative Buyoya for your briefings. Enhancing the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union is critical for advancing peace and security in Africa. From the Central African Republic, to Mali, to Somalia, every improvement in the important partnership between the United Nations and the African Union has very real impacts on regional stability and on security.

The African Union and its member states have demonstrated important leadership in responding to African conflicts through peacekeeping and preventive diplomacy to stop potential conflicts from becoming actual ones.

Peacekeeping, whether it is done by the United Nations or the African Union, or in some cases both, is only as strong as its troop and police contributors. Member states must be willing to contribute the needed troops and resources; and troop contributors must be willing to robustly carry out difficult mandates. We commend the African troop-contributing countries who have answered the call, again and again, to serve in peacekeeping operations and who have demonstrated a commitment to implement their mandates, including the protection of civilians.

While blue-helmeted United Nations peacekeeping is a critically important tool, it is not always the best tool to respond to a particular conflict. That is why so many of us have redoubled our efforts to support regional organizations’ capacity, including the African Union, to launch and support peace operations when they are needed and consistent with the Charter of the United Nations.

The Security Council has a unique role under the United Nations Charter but our decisions and actions should be taken in close consultation with all stakeholders, including member states, regional and sub-regional organizations, potential troop contributors, and decisions related to the deployment of UN or African Union peacekeeping missions must be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the unique circumstances of each particular situation. Enhancing the capacity of regional forces to respond is critical, but the ability of regional organizations to deploy peace operations must be seen as a complement to, of course, not a substitute for, the United Nations’ own ability to carry out robust peacekeeping operations.

Mr. President, we continue to be immensely grateful for Africa’s contributions to peacekeeping. In September of this year, Vice President Biden joined other leaders at a summit focused on generating new commitments to peacekeeping to ensure that the whole of the international community does more to share the burden.

We have made demonstrable progress in our cooperative efforts to deploy troops quickly to crisis areas when the need arises, but we are still too slow. Delay in our crisis response often means more unnecessary deaths. To be quicker and better, we must work more closely and collaboratively. That is why the United States is committed to improving the Security Council’s engagement with the African Union Peace and Security Council.

And in our effort to do better, to do more, and to do so more quickly, we should learn from the past. The recent transitions from African Union-led peacekeeping operations to United Nations-led operations in Mali and the Central African Republic demonstrate once again that the African Union is sometimes in a position to deploy troops to trouble spots much more quickly than others. Without the initial leadership of the AU and contributions of African, French, and other European troops in Mali and Central African Republic, far more civilians would have died over the past year in both countries.

This is why the United States has created the African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership, which envisions a new investment of $110 million per year for 3-5 years to build the capacity of African forces to rapidly deploy peacekeepers in response to emerging conflict. Under this program, African partner nations will receive additional support and will commit to maintaining forces and equipment ready to rapidly deploy as part of UN or AU missions to respond to emerging crises.

The United States is also prepared to provide additional support, including training for headquarters staff and key enabler functions, such as engineers, to catalyze the AU’s efforts to establish its African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis, which is intended to facilitate the deployment of tactical battle groups of approximately 1,500 military personnel deployed by a lead nation or group of AU member states.

There has been some discussion today about the financing of peacekeeping operations. In order to be effective, peacekeeping operations must be accountable. And they must be accountable to the organization that has authorized and funded it. That is why we do not support assessing UN member states for the expenses of regional organizations. Such arrangements do not allow the United Nations to exercise critical and, indeed, essential oversight of complex operational undertakings.

However, it is also why we continue to champion and invest heavily in support for AU operations through voluntary contributions and bilateral assistance. Since 2009, the United States has committed to provide nearly $892 million to develop African peacekeeping capacity and strengthen African institutions.

Most recently, in 2013, the United States committed nearly $200 million toward training, equipping, sustaining, and airlifting African peacekeepers of the African-led International Support Mission in Mali. In the Central African Republic, we provided critical equipment and airlift to both the AU troops and French forces operating alongside them. And in Somalia, we have obligated more than $680 million to AMISOM on top of the more than $455 million in UN-assessed contributions for UNSOA that are attributable to the United States. Other partners such as the EU, through its African Peace Facility, have similarly provided very robust support, and we look for other partners doing the same.

In closing, I want to reiterate the depth of my government’s commitment to strengthening African responses to crises on the continent both bilaterally and through this Council.

Today, there are more than 67,000 African peacekeepers serving with the African Union and United Nations in Africa. Their contributions to peace cannot be overstated. They deserve more support from all of us to train, equip, and enable their deployment.

As President Obama said during our U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit held in August, “the United States is determined to be a partner in Africa’s success – a good partner, an equal partner, and a partner for the long term.”

I thank you, Mr. President.

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY'S REMARKS ON INTERNATIONAL MISSION IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 
Support for the African Union International Support Mission in the Central African Republic
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
November 20, 2013

I am deeply concerned by the ongoing crisis in the Central African Republic and the deplorable levels of violence and lawlessness that affect millions of people every day. In the continuing aftermath of the March 2013 overthrow of the government by the Seleka rebel alliance, militia groups are now organizing themselves along increasingly sectarian lines and engaging in a cycle of retaliatory abuses against civilians. At this moment, the United States sees no evidence that the CAR transitional government has the capacity or political will to end the violence, especially the abuses committed by elements of the Seleka rebel alliance that are affiliated with the government.

Pending notification to the United States Congress, the Department of State plans to provide $40 million in assistance to MISCA, the African Union-led peacekeeping mission in the CAR, to help protect civilians and provide security throughout the country. This assistance may provide logistical backing, non-lethal equipment, training, and planning support. In the immediate term, we believe that MISCA is the best mechanism to help quickly address the ongoing violence in the CAR and prevent further atrocities. MISCA is also in the best position to help establish an environment that allows for the provision of humanitarian assistance and an eventual political transition to a democratically elected government.

There are nearly 400,000 internally displaced persons and over 220,000 CAR refugees in neighboring countries, including approximately 68,000 new refugees who have fled in recent months. In the past year, the U.S. government has provided more than $24 million in humanitarian assistance to support programs that provide food, health services, and other aid in the CAR. We have also provided an additional $6 million in humanitarian assistance to specifically support new Central African refugees.

We call on the region and the international community to support and fully deploy MISCA in order to restore security in the country, and we will continue to work with others in the region and the international community to implement a credible political transition and assist the people of the CAR who have suffered so greatly in this conflict.

DOD TOUTS UNFOLDING U.S.-CHINESE MILITARY RELATIONS

China.  Credit:  U.S. State Department/CIA

FROM:  U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 
Officials Map Next Steps in U.S.-Chinese Military Relations
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2013 - U.S. and Chinese officials mapped the next steps in the military-to-military relationship between their nations at the 14th annual defense consultative talks that ended in Beijing yesterday.

James N. Miller, the undersecretary of defense for policy, met with Lt. Gen. Wang Guanzhong, deputy chief of the People's Liberation Army General Staff. The two men last met in July.

"We're engaging the Chinese in a number of channels, ... and we are working to build cooperation in areas of mutual interest," Miller told reporters following the meeting. "We're also discussing our differences and working to narrow them where we can. Where we can't narrow the differences, at least we can understand each other's perspectives better, and we're working to reduce the chances of misunderstanding and miscalculations."

The United States and China are the world's two largest economies. The consultative talks on defense "looked for ways to build strategic trust and look for opportunities to build on cooperation in areas of mutual interest," Miller said. This includes humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping and maritime safety, to name just a few, he added.

The talks sought to capitalize on recent cooperation. Last month, Chinese and U.S. forces completed a counterpiracy exercise in the Gulf of Aden, Miller noted, and China already has announced it will participate in the RIMPAC 2014 exercise in the Pacific Rim. The U.S. and Chinese teams also discussed the Chinese participating in other exercises, including multinational exercises such as Cobra Gold 2014, he said.

The talks covered maritime security in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and the two sides exchanged views on cyber, space, nuclear policy and missile defense" Miller said.

"I emphasized our grave concerns reference North Korea's nuclear and missile developments," the undersecretary said. "We called on China to pressure North Korea to return to a process of credible and authentic negotiations aimed at denuclearization."