(Photograph by Shen Hong/Xinhua News Agency)

On June 18, based on the consensus reached among the members of the Security Council, Ambassador Li Baodong, President of the Security Council for the month of June and China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, made a Security Council President's press statement on Mali. The Security Council encouraged a political settlement of the crisis in Mali and reiterated its full support to the mediation efforts made by ECOWAS, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa and the African Union.