Daily Multilateralism
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
The UN Security Council was briefed on political developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The peacekeeping force there, known as MONUSCO, is moving toward an eventual exit from the country and has reduced its presence in several regions.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has closed nine field offices since the peaceful transfer of power in the 2018 presidential elections, the Organization’s top official in that country told the Security Council today, reporting that a new strategy for the operation’s eventual closure recognizes and is tailored to differing realities on the ground and security needs in each province.
MONUSCO currently has about 18,000 military and police personnel, with Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan as the largest troop contributors. The UN’s peacekeeping presence in the DRC began in the late 1990s, in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the conflict it spawned in neighboring Congo.
British prime minister Boris Johnson and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will meet this week in an effort to salvage a trade deal. Even if they are able to strike a deal, several hurdles remain.
EU member states have to unanimously support any post-Brexit trade deal and the agreement still needs to be voted on by the European parliament, procedures that would push any deal right up to the end-of-year deadline.
The advocacy group Human Rights Watch provides a long to-do list for the member countries of the International Criminal Court. The court’s members will meet in New York and The Hague next week to discuss an array of topics and to elect new judges and a prosecutor. The selection process for the prosecutor has proved controversial, and member countries are now considering an expanded list of possible replacements for current prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.
This month, Italy took the helm of the Group of Twenty (G20), succeeding Saudi Arabia. The Italian government wants the group’s leaders to convene for a global health summit in May. According to Reuters:
If heads of state accept the invitation, it would be the first such in-person meeting for global chiefs since 2019, after the coronavirus reduced the main G20 and Group of Seven summits this year to virtual gatherings….The global health summit is scheduled for May 21 in Rome and would discuss the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, access to vaccinations and international cooperation.
The World Health Organization’s pandemic response has received decidedly mixed reviews. Now Foreign Affairs has canvassed an array of international health and governance experts about whether the world needs a new global institution to address pandemics. Yanzhong Huang makes the case for building new architecture:
[T]he WHO is overstretched and underfunded, and spinning off functions of pandemic preparedness and response would enable the WHO to focus on areas it has true comparative advantages, such as norm making.
Asha George is among those who instead argues for reforming and bolstering the WHO. “We are better served supporting and reforming it than creating a new organization that will be more beholden to the special interests behind its creation.”
Bloomberg reports that the European Union is ready with a “Plan B” if Hungary and Poland do not lift their objections to the EU budget.
A senior diplomat in Brussels said that in the absence of a breakthrough, the EU will turn to ‘Plan B’, launching the economic recovery fund while excluding the two holdouts. The diplomat, who asked not to be named, didn’t elaborate on the details of the plan and said it’s still unclear how long it will take.
The two countries are resisting any budget deal that conditions EU funding on member countries’ ability to maintain democratic standards and the rule of law.
Briefly noted:
NATO profiles a French infantry captain ready to defend Lithuania.
The World Economic Forum, normally hosted in Davos, Switzerland, will move to Singapore this year.
The International Monetary Fund warns of cyber risks to financial stability.
Getting ready for the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement.
Thumbs down: the Organization of American States and the European Union were not impressed with Venezuela’s recent legislative elections.
The European Union adopted a new framework for human rights sanctions.