Madam President,

Right now, Somalia is at a critical stage of national reconstruction. Preparations for the general election are proceeding steadily. The implementation of the Transitional Plan is making continuous progress. On the other hand, the security situation in Somalia remains challenging. The mandate renewal provides an opportunity that in China's view should be used to update the relevant sanctions measures in light of developments on the ground, to help Somalia build greater security capacity and serve its reconstruction process.

That position of ours guided China’s active engagement in the consultations on the draft offering many constructive amendments. Regrettably, the draft resolution did not take on board our proposal of exploring the benchmarks for assessing the lifting of the arms embargo. The current arms embargo has been a serious impediment to enhance the security capacity of the Somali Government. The text fails to make a due response to the strong desire of the Somali Government to have their arms embargo lifted.

On another note, the current text fails to effectively address the concerns of Djibouti and Eritrea. Both Djibouti and Eritrea are good friends of China. China encourages them to improve their ties through bilateral consultation.

Given the foregoing, since the draft does not duly address China's concerns, we have no choice but to abstain from the voting.

I thank you, Madam President.