Guterres calls on the Security Council to ensure that natural resources become a pillar of peace and not fuel for conflict

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New York, July 22 / WAM / António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, called on the Security Council to adopt four urgent priorities to ensure that natural resources become an engine for peace and development, instead of remaining a source of conflict and violence, warning that mismanagement of resources and their illegal exploitation have become among the most prominent factors fueling armed conflicts around the world.

This came during the statement made by Guterres, before the general discussion session held by the UN Security Council on Wednesday, chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thérèse Kayekwamba, whose country holds the presidency of the Council this month, under the title “Natural Resource Governance: The Foundation on which Peace, Security and Prosperity is Built,” to discuss the relationship between natural resource management, conflict prevention and the promotion of sustainable peace.

Guterres explained that the first priority is to achieve justice, by ensuring that resource-rich countries and communities benefit from their wealth. He said: “It is time to break the old pattern in which resources are extracted while their value is reaped elsewhere, and poor communities are left to face environmental, social and economic damage.”

He added that the second priority is prevention, by reducing illicit flows and enhancing transparency in mineral supply chains, stressing that effective measures must include the entire value chain, not just the extraction stage.

Regarding the third priority, he called for employing peaceful settlement tools to address conflicts related to natural resources, explaining that issues of access to resources and sharing their revenues are often political rather than technical, and can constitute an entry point for dialogue and confidence-building.

Regarding the fourth priority, he stressed the need to integrate the climate dimension into conflict prevention efforts, warning that drought, floods, and environmental degradation increase competition over land, water, and minerals, which exacerbates tensions and threatens to ignite violence.

Guterres pointed out that vital minerals, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements, are gaining increasing strategic importance with the rise in global demand for them, explaining that this opens important opportunities for development in producing countries, but at the same time it fuels geopolitical competition, increases pressure on supply chains, and fuels conflicts, with dire humanitarian consequences.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations reminded the UN Security Council of the measures it has taken over the past years to limit the financing of conflicts through natural resources, including supporting national authorities in combating illegal exploitation, and imposing sanctions targeting illegal trade in resources in a number of regions, pointing out that the main challenge is changing the way natural resources are extracted, manufactured, and marketed, ensuring that producing countries and local communities retain a greater portion of their added value.

He added that the management of natural resources should contribute to financing sustainable development, strengthening institutions, and consolidating peace, stressing that this is a “political choice” and called on Security Council members to “choose peace.”

For her part, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, stressed that the rapid rise in global demand for vital minerals represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Africa and other developing countries rich in natural resources.

She added that this opportunity could contribute to accelerating industrial development and improving living standards, but she warned that historical experiences have proven that the abundance of natural resources may easily turn into a “resource curse” if good governance is absent… calling for transparent and fair management of natural resources to ensure development and stability.