Mr. President

I welcome the presence of Foreign Minister of the Central African Republic Her Excellency Baïpo-Témon.

In recent years, the Central African Republic has registered steady progress in political and peace processes and achieved positive development in improving governance, promoting peace, and maintaining security and stability. The efforts made by the CAR Government on those fronts are widely recognized and China expresses its appreciation. The resolution that has just been adopted lifts the arms embargo against the Central African Republic. It also lays out new sanction measures against armed groups and reiterates that the Security Council’s arms embargo and notification requirements do not apply to the CAR Government. This adjustment represents a positive response to the reasonable concerns of the government and people of the CAR, and will provide meaningful support to the CAR Government in building up its security capacity and promoting the peace process. Based on this position, China voted in favor of the draft resolution. We speak highly of the efforts made by all parties, including France as the penholder.

At the same time, it should be noted that the Council’s CAR sanctions regime was established. over 10 years ago. The current political and security situation in the CAR has undergone tremendous positive changes compared with 2013. In recent years, the arms embargo imposed by the Council failed to completely prevent armed groups from obtaining weapons through illegal channels. Instead, sanction measures have led to the stigmatization of the CAR, hampering the access of the CAR Government to international financing, affecting the country’s trade ties with other states, and even undermining the CAR’s overall peace-building, development, and revitalization efforts. Completely lifting sanctions is a strong aspiration of the government and people of the CAR and has received staunch support from countries and organizations in the region. While the resolution that the Council has just adopted constitutes another important step toward the complete lifting of sanctions against the CAR, the text, however, still retains a number of restrictive measures. We support the Security Council to respect and take seriously as always the concerns voiced by the CAR, take further actions in a timely manner according to the development of the situation and in response to the needs of the ground, review, adjust, and lift inapplicable and unreasonable sanction measures, and create more favorable conditions for the CAR and the region to achieve peace, stability, development, and prosperity.

Thank you, President.