President Cyril Ramaphosa has said an insufficient emphasis on ‘the call for meaningful engagement’ was the reason for South Africa abstaining from last week’s United Nations (UN) vote on the resolution on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
News24 noted that critics described South Africa’s stance as ‘fence-sitting’.
But in his weekly newsletter on Monday, Ramaphosa said South Africa abstained because the resolution did not ‘foreground the call for meaningful engagement’.
South Africa expected that the UN resolution would first welcome the commencement of dialogue between the parties and seek to create the conditions for these talks to succeed.
‘Instead, the call for a peaceful resolution through political dialogue is relegated to a single sentence close to the conclusion of the final text. This does not provide the encouragement and international backing that the parties need to continue with their efforts,’ he said.
Ramaphosa said the call for peaceful negotiation was aligned with the values upon which the UN was founded.
He said: ‘We are particularly concerned that the UN Security Council was unable to discharge its responsibility to maintain peace and security. This gives impetus to the longstanding calls for the Security Council’s reform to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.’
[Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/3311542781]