Madame President,

I wish to thank SRSG Swan and Special Representative Madeira for their briefings. I also welcome the Permanent Representative of Somalia to our meeting today.

Last week, Somali presidential election was successfully concluded, turning a new page in its national governance. China welcomes this development, and congratulates Mr. Mohamud on his election as new president, while appreciating President Farmajo for respecting the election result. The current outcome is hard-won. It reflects Somalia’s new progress in exploring a development path suited to its own national conditions, while also manifesting the firm resolve of all parties in Somalia to maintain national stability. We look forward to the forming of the new Somalia Government, and sincerely hope that Somalia can turn this opportunity into speeding up state building and achieve long-term stability and security at an early date.

Peace and stability in Somalia still faces severe challenges. China strongly condemns the frequent terrorist attack by Al-Shabaab, including the attack on the ATMIS base, which killed several Burundi peacekeepers, and the shelling on presidential election. China highly appreciates the important contributions and great sacrifices made by ATMIS in maintaining security and stability in Somalia. The key to handing over security responsibilities to Somalia is to implement the Somalia transition plan, speed up its force generation and integration, and effectively improve its own security capabilities. China supports the new Somali Government and ATMIS in strengthening coordination and communication during the security transition period. We expect that the United Nations, the Somali Government, the African Union, and other relevant parties will discuss and define the division of responsibilities and assessment benchmarks during the transition period in accordance with the requests of the Security Council solutions. We call on the major contributors to continue to provide sustainable and predictable financial support to the security forces of Somalia and ATMIS to ensure the effective implementation of relevant security programs.

The humanitarian situation in Somalia is worrying. Unprecedented drought has devastated lives of millions of people, bringing to the fore the issue of food security in particular. UN humanitarian response plans are chronically underfunded, hampering the effective delivery of emergency humanitarian operations. China calls on the international community not to neglect the humanitarian and development issue in Somalia and relevant inputs in the area, but to continue to help Somalia respond to the risk of famine, and carry out more development cooperation projects. China is committed to assisting Somalia in its economic and social development through pragmatic cooperation. Recently, we have delivered new safety and health assistance to Somalia, and are planning to provide Somalia with a new batch of emergency food aid.

Under the leadership SRSG Swan, UNSOM has cooperated with the AU and IGAD to actively implement its important mandate of political good offices, capacity building, and coordination among all parties. China will continue to support the work of UNSOM and SRSG Swan. Against the backdrop of the completion of its election and the start of new state of security transition in Somalia, China supports the technical rollover of UNSOM so that this duration can be used to conduct the strategic assessment to optimize the mandate of UNSOM according to the needs of the Somali Government and the functions of resident entities of other international organizations in Somalia, in order to further focus on the key areas and bring into full play to its advantages.

Thank you, Madame President.