Security Council meeting 5769

The President

The Security Council will now proceed to the consideration of its annual report to the General Assembly, for the period from 1 August 2006 to 31 July 2007.

Members of the Council have before them the draft report as circulated by the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs on 4 October 2007, and a corrigendum thereto.

The introduction to the draft report was prepared by the delegation of China with the participation of other members of the Council, and the body of the report was prepared by the Secretariat. I should like to express appreciation to China and the Secretariat for their respective contributions.

I should also like to point out that the format of the draft report now before the Council corresponds to the provisions initially set out in the note by the President of 22 May 2002 (S/2002/199) and now incorporated in the note by the President of 19 July 2006 (S/2006/507).

The floor is open for those members who wish to speak.

Mr. Burian (Slovakia)

At the outset, I would like to express my delegation’s appreciation to the delegation of China for its efforts in preparing the introduction to this year’s Security Council report to the General Assembly. We are very grateful to the Chinese delegation for its hard work, high degree of professionalism and very constructive approach. In this context, Slovakia is pleased to say that we see this year’s introduction to the annual report as a solid text that reflects well the complex and wide-ranging work of the Security Council. Let me also express our thanks to the Secretariat for its hard work throughout the year in making sure that the entire annual report contains all the necessary facts and data.

In recent years, we have been experiencing an increase in the number of Security Council agenda items, meetings and decisions. That is a logical reflection of the increased role and involvement of the Security Council in addressing threats and challenges to international peace and security. We are convinced that this should also go hand in hand with an increase in the Security Council’s relevance, authority and effectiveness. All of these things are closely connected with how the Security Council’s work is perceived and understood on the outside — first and foremost within the General Assembly, of course.

In that context, Slovakia strongly believes that the Security Council’s annual report to the General Assembly is a very important document and should by no means be just a routine exercise of an administrative or statistical nature.

Mr. President, the technical and procedural aspects of the preparation of the annual report, as you mentioned, are covered in section XI of the annex to the note by the President of the Security Council of 19 July 2006 (S/2006/507), which contains language recollected from previous Security Council documents. In our view, this provides very useful guidance. However, we believe we need to go further in our efforts in this regard and concentrate more on the substance of the report and on key political messages about the important work of the Security Council.

Also, as the current Chairman of the Security Council’s Informal Working Group on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions, I would like to take this opportunity to invite all colleagues to join forces and to redouble their efforts in this very important area. We truly believe that further progress can be achieved, building upon this year’s positive experience under the able leadership of the Chinese delegation. Moreover, there are a few practical ideas that will be further discussed in the Informal Working Group. I would like to invite all my colleagues to join the efforts to further improve the work on the preparation of the introduction.

Mr. Liu Zhenmin (China)

First of all, Mr. President, I thank you for your introduction of the draft report. I also thank the Secretariat for its efforts in preparing the report, and I appreciate the statement made by Ambassador Burian a moment ago.

All members of the Council had already reached agreement on the draft report prior to this meeting, and we look forward to its adoption by the Security Council. Considering that the General Assembly will examine the report in early November, we hope that it can be printed quickly, so as to give non-members of the Council more time to read it.

As President of the Council in July, China was in charge of drafting the report’s introduction. During the drafting process, all members of the Council made valuable contributions, and the Secretariat also provided assistance. China wishes to express its thanks to all of them.

This process will have enabled the Security Council to submit to the General Assembly a report that is accurate, balanced and rich in information. We hope that the report will also be conducive to enhancing transparency in the work of the Security Council.

With regard to the question of how to further enhance the quality of the annual report in the future, I share the views of Ambassador Burian and think that this question should be one element for consideration during the preparation of next year’s report of the Council. Taking into account past practice and the actual work of each year, and drawing upon our collective wisdom, we should be able to find a way to improve our work on the report. China is also willing to share the experience we have gained in drafting the introduction.

Finally, I propose that the Security Council adopt the draft report.

The President

There are no other speakers on my list. It is my understanding that the Council is ready to proceed to the adoption of its annual report.

May I take it that the draft report, as corrected, is adopted by the Council?

There being no objection, it is so decided.

This decision will be reflected in a note by the President of the Security Council to be issued as document S/2007/627.

The Security Council has thus concluded its consideration of the item on its agenda.