2023-05-05 22:09:18
Cclimate, impact of conflict on women and children, and reform of the Security Council among the priorities of the March 2023 presidency.
Pedro Comissário Afonso (left), Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mozambique to the United Nations, standing next to his country’s flag.
Mozambique is the President of the UN Security Council for the month of March 2023. This is also the first time that Mozambique has served on the Council. The Ambassador Pedro Commissioner AfonsoPermanent Representative of Mozambique to the United Nations, spoke to Franck Kuwonu d’Africa Renewal of his country’s priorities and of his own career as a diplomat. Here are excerpts:
Tell us a little about yourself and tell us how long you have been in this position.
My name is Pedro Comissário Afonso. I studied law in Maputo and have a master’s degree in law from Columbia University, USA. I have worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1981, which represents almost 42 years of experience in this field.
I was the Permanent Representative of Mozambique to the United Nations in New York for the first time from 1989 to 1996. I was then posted to Portugal, then to the Nordic countries and finally to Geneva. I was then appointed Deputy Foreign Minister and here I am again in New York with the responsibility of representing my country on the United Nations Security Council.
How has your career been so far and what do you consider to be your main successes and challenges?
One of the best things about this career is that you have a team that helps you complete the tasks and responsibilities given to you.
In this context, my greatest satisfaction, from 1989 to 1996, was to obtain the involvement of the United Nations, and in particular of the Security Council, in the peace process in Mozambique. This led to the deployment of a peacekeeping operation from 1992 to 1994. Mozambique therefore has a long history of cooperation with the United Nations, particularly in matters of peace and conflict resolution.
Peace and security in Africa are the absolute priority of our presence on the Security Council, first because we are Africans, then because we have a great experience of conflict management in our own country.
Other successes?
Well, whenever you are assigned to a position in diplomacy, it means that there must be a priority or a few basic tasks that need to be done. This was the case when I was assigned to Portugal where my main responsibility was to mobilize Portuguese investments for Mozambique. We were coming out of 16 years of conflict, so we needed a lot of investment. But I was not alone. My colleagues from other parts of the world have also been given the priority mandate to mobilize investment for Mozambique.
After Portugal, I was assigned to the Nordic countries. These countries have been among our closest friends since the days of our liberation struggle. I was sent there to further boost our cooperation.
In Geneva, where I visited as Permanent Representative to the UN and Ambassador to Switzerland, I helped to give impetus to our cooperation with the Swiss authorities. With the UN, the most important thing was the end of the demining process in Mozambique. I went home, and now I’m here again.
Did you encounter any challenges along the way?
I can only mention one. In the 47 years of our independence, we have never served on the United Nations Security Council until now. I have therefore been sent here to ensure that our presence is fruitful, in accordance with the wishes of the President of the Republic of Mozambique. This is the biggest challenge.
Mozambique will be President of the United Nations Security Council for the month of March 2023. It is also the first time that Mozambique has served on the Security Council, for a two-year term starting in January 2023. What are your priorities? for this presidency and your mandate in the Council?
The priorities are many. The first is the global peace and security agendabecause the Charter of the United Nations gives the Security Council the mandate to ensure peace and security in the world.
The second priority is peace and security in Africa. This is the absolute priority of our presence in the Security Council, firstly because we are Africans, then because we have a great experience of conflict management in our own country.
Global success will depend on our ability, two years from now, to get the international community, the United Nations Security Council, to agree and act on the world’s pressing problems. These are the conflicts in Africa, Ukraine, Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Our number three priority is climate, peace and security.
And the fourth is women, children, peace and security. This, you can imagine, is perfectly relevant for a country that has suffered the effects of conflict for a long time.
We also have in mind the issue of multilateralism and the reform of the Security Council.
What would you consider a success for Mozambique and for the African continent?
We don’t measure success by what you would like to see as success. The United Nations Security Council has 15 member states. Five of them are permanent members with a right of veto. So we would like to take the best decisions ever taken in the Security Council for peace and security in the world. But we have to be realistic because some members have the right of veto.
Thus, global success will depend on our ability, two years from now, to bring the international community, the United Nations Security Council, to agree and act on the world’s pressing problems. These are the conflicts in Africa, Ukraine, Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Along with Mozambique, there are currently two other non-permanent African members of the United Nations Security Council – Gabon and Ghana. Together you form the African trio (A3) in the Council. What can you tell us about how you are working together to advance Africa’s interests in this international body?
What we do is to always sit down to coordinate our points of view and harmonize our positions in order to better defend the interests of Africa. For example, this week, my colleagues entrusted me with reading a statement from the A3 on the situation in Libya. And the same afternoon, Mozambique, again, made a statement on Somalia individually. But I mention it because, even there, we harmonized our points of view.
The A3 is very important. It is a force within the United Nations Security Council. Very recently, on February 18, the President of Mozambique, the President of Ghana and the President of Gabon formally met for the first time to announce the role that the A3 will play in the Security Council.
Cyclone Freddy made landfall in Mozambique last Friday causing heavy rains and flooding around Maputo. What has been the impact on the ground and how is the government responding?
We are still assessing the impact, but we know there has been a lot of destruction, especially in the landing zones. These are cyclical events. Recently we had floods in the southernmost part of Mozambique. And now we have Hurricane Freddy.
How prepared is the country for the next two months of hurricane season, and to withstand the ever-increasing and devastating impact of frequent natural disasters?
I think Mozambique is one of the best prepared African countries to deal with these natural disasters. We have an institution – the National Institute for Disaster Management or Instituto Nacional de Gestão de Calamidades (INGC) – responsible for taking care of our population in the event of a natural disaster. So we are always ready. But most of the time, no matter how prepared you are, you are still affected by the destructive force and challenges of a natural disaster, and it happens everywhere, not just in Mozambique.
The A3 is very important. It is a force within the United Nations Security Council. Very recently, on February 18, the President of Mozambique, the President of Ghana and the President of Gabon formally met for the first time to announce the role that the A3 will play in the Security Council.
Would you need more international help to deal with the situation? What is your message for the international community?
International assistance is always and always welcome. We cannot give up the help of others. Look what happened with Pakistan. Yet Pakistan is a country that has been independent for much longer than Mozambique and still needed international help. One of the most important things we have told our partners is to support our institutional capacity. This means that the INGC must receive funds and equipment to meet the challenge. And the second point is the financial aid to our country to support our people: children, women and even the general population whose homes, cultures and living conditions have been destroyed.
We are now in the third year of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and the African Union theme for 2023 is “Accelerating the Implementation of the AfCFTA”. Mozambique has signed the AfCFTA but has not yet ratified it. In December 2022, Minister of Industry and Trade Silvino Moreno said this would be done within the year. What is the blockage?
There is no blockage. The treaty is being debated by Parliament and will be ratified in due course. When it comes to ratifying or acceding to international legal instruments, it is one thing to sign, which is done by the government or the executive branch. It is another thing to ratify, because ratification goes through parliament. In our National Assembly, there is not just one party. There are other parties and to get the best possible result we have to bring everyone together. It’s a normal process.
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UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
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