UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Thursday unanimously approved a technical roll-over of the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) for a month to allow negotiations on regular renewal.
Resolution 2446 extends the peacekeeping mission's mandate till Dec. 15, 2018. The technical roll-over is a necessity as the mandate of the mission, known by its French acronym as MINUSCA, expires midnight Thursday.
France drafted Resolution 2446 after its draft resolution for a regular renewal of MINUSCA's mandate for a year failed to get approval of Russia and the United States -- two Security Council members that have veto power.
Russia wanted its peace efforts in the CAR to be recognized in the French draft while the United States expressed concern over possible increase in costs from the proposed new task of supporting newly trained CAR troops in their deployment.
The French-U.S. difference was solved through agreement that there should be no additional costs for the new task.
U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Jonathan Cohen said Thursday after the council vote that his country supports the addition of the new task in the next mandate that would allow "limited logistical support" to the CAR military, police and gendarmerie -- by using existing resources.
The technical roll-over would allow time for full notification within the U.S. government as required by U.S. law, he said.
But Russia on Thursday demanded "significant additional efforts" from France toward the adoption of its draft resolution on the regular renewal of MINUSCA's mandate.
The fact that France addressed the U.S. concern inspires optimism, said Russia's First Deputy Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy. "Since you heard their views, kindly listen to ours as well."
The CAR has been in civil war since 2012, which is being fought along religious and ethnic lines. The CAR government, which controls only a fifth of the country's territory, wants MINUSCA to take up more security responsibilities. Enditem
