Page 3 - ARUBA TODAY

UP FRONT Thursday 21 sepTember 2017
A3
Pence applauds UN resolution on peacekeeping reform

By ALEXANDRA OLSON in the past decade by one
Associated Press measure. Three missions —
UNITED NATIONS (AP) Haiti, Ivory Coast and Libe-
— The Security Council ria — are scheduled to end
backed reforms Wednes- by March 2018, which will
day to reduce inefficien- save hundreds of millions
cies, corruption and abuse of dollars.
in the U.N.’s far-flung “Peacekeeping remains
peacekeeping operations, a highly cost-effect instru-
a key priority of the Trump ment,” Guterres told the
administration at the U.N. council.Still, he outlined
General Assembly. plans for reform with four
Vice President Mike Pence goals in mind.The first,
cast the approval vote he said, is ensuring that
for the United States, say- “peace operations are de-
ing the U.N. must be more ployed in support of active
aggressive in evaluating diplomatic efforts, not as
the effectiveness of its op- a substitute.” To that end,
erations. He said all peace- Guterres has changed
keeping missions must be the structure of the U.N.
deployed in support of a secretariat to consolidate
political solution to con- the management of both
flicts and have exit strate- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and British Prime Minister Theresa May vote on a resolution during peacekeeping operations
gies. a high level Security Council meeting on United Nations peacekeeping operations, Wednesday, and large political missions.
“In short, when a mission Sept. 20, 2017 at U.N. headquarters. The second challenge is
succeeds, we must not (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) ensuring that peacekeep-
prolong it. When a mission ers are properly equipped.
underperforms, we should peacekeeping crisis uncov- The Security Council asked keeping budget, nearly Guterres said there are
restructure it. And when ered roughly 2,000 allega- for annual briefings from triple the second-largest critical gaps in technology,
a mission consistently fails tions of sexual abuse and U.N. Secretary-General An- contributor, China. transportation, intelligence
to fulfill a mandate of this exploitation during a 12- tonio Guterres on his initia- U.N. officials have pushed and other capabilities. The
council, we should end it,” year period. It found that tive to reform peacekeep- back on the idea that its Security Council resolution
Pence said. the U.N. often lost track of ing. peacekeeping opera- called on member states
While many peacekeep- the victims and that only a Guterres shares U.S. con- tions are not cost-efficient. to fulfill pledges to pro-
ing missions have been fraction of the perpetrators cerns that peacekeeping Guterres pointed to 55 vide those capabilities and
hailed as successful — Sier- were held accountable. missions often get bogged operations that have asked Guterres to provide
ra Leone most recently — Adding to the challenges down in ever-evolving wrapped up over the a report within 90 days on a
others have been criticized is the changing nature of conflicts without sufficient years, achieving peace in mechanism to fill the gaps.
for sexual abuse violations conflicts around the world. resources or an adequate countries around the world. The third goal is to stamp
and corruption, especially Often the main players are political strategy. There are currently 16 U.N. out corruption and abuses
in the Central African Re- rebel groups and fighters But the Trump administra- peacekeeping operations that have tarnished the
public and Congo. The who act outside of inter- tion stoked alarm in the under way, with more than reputation of U.N. peace-
joint U.N.-African Union national law, rather than U.N. with a proposal to cut 100,000 personnel, at an keeping, particularly sex
mission in Sudan’s Darfur conflicts between differ- U.S. funding for U.N. peace- annual cost of nearly $8 bil- abuse scandals.
region has been widely ent countries. As a result, keeping by $1.3 billion, lion. The U.N. has said that, Guterres said he has taken
criticized for inefficiency. U.N. peacekeepers have over 50 percent. The United adjusted for inflation, the “strong steps” to fight the
An Associated Press inves- increasingly been killed, in- States currently pays 28.57 cost to member states has problem, which he says
tigative series on the U.N’s jured or kidnapped. percent of the peace- decreased by 17 percent has haunted him. q
AP Interview: Lavrov hints US-Russia ‘tit-for-tat’ could end

By JOHN DANISZEWSKI and Russian diplomats in by side on the basis of mu-
Associated Press December, including new tual respect.”
NEW YORK (AP) — sanctions and expelling 35 Lavrov pointed to those
Russian Foreign Minister Russian diplomats, to pun- statements while acknowl-
Sergey Lavrov told The As- ish Russia for meddling in edging relations are at “a
sociated Press in an inter- the U.S. elections, a charge very difficult and a very low
view that he heard positive Russia has denied. Moscow point, which is the legacy
news in President Donald responded by limiting the of the Obama administra-
Trump’s United Nations ad- size of the U.S. diplomatic tion.” But he said that what
dress: “that the U.S. would staff in Russia. Trump had said during the
not impose its way of life on In his speech to the Gen- election campaign, and
others.” eral Assembly, Trump said what he continues to say
“I think it’s a very wel- “We do not seek to impose now, is that he wants to
come statement, which our way of life on anyone, have good relations with
we haven’t heard from but rather to let it shine as Moscow.
an American leader for a Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov answers questions during an example for everyone “What I feel, talking to Rex
very long time,” said Lav- a news conference in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. to watch.” Tillerson, is that this is the
rov, who sat down with the (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) He also said, “Strong, sov- position of the administra-
AP and Russia’s Tass news ereign nations let diverse tion, that they are not hap-
agency Tuesday, directly Lavrov blamed the Obama Moscow and Washington. countries with different val- py with the current state of
after meeting with U.S. Sec- administration for the col- The U.S. enacted a series ues, different cultures, not relations, and we are not
retary of State Rex Tillerson. lapse in relations between of steps against the Russian just coexist, but work side happy at all,” he said.q