"The Security Council acknowledges the evolving challenges and threats to international peace and security," said a presidential statement read out by U.S. permanent representative to the UN Susan Rice, who holds the rotating presidency position for the month of April.
"The council has addressed, when appropriate, related to these challenges, and threats, illicit cross-border trafficking in arms, drug trafficking, trafficking by non-state actors in nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons,"she said.
Rice stated that "the illicit cross-border trafficking and movement have increased as the world has become more interconnected," mentioning that organized crime groups, and networks, have become better equipped at staying connected with their illicit acts.
Additionally, she said that "the Security Council reaffirms that securing their borders is a sovereign prerogative of Member States," stressing that they should refrain from international relations that threaten their borders or would cause them to use force to maintain territorial integrity.
Mirroring Rice`s statement, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon has said that "insecure borders enable the trafficking of drugs, weapons, contraband, terrorist funding, materials related to weapons of mass destruction conflict materials, minerals, wild life and people," as he addressed the Security Council.
Ban stressed that "such illicit flows undermine state sovereignty, they destroy communities and individual lives, they, are threats to peace and security."
Xinhua-OANA
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
