International peace-making under the auspices of the United Nations could be an effective way to handle the problem of uncontrolled territories, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Sunday.
Speaking at a regional security conference in Singapore, Ivanov cited parts of Afghanistan and areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border area, the "Golden Triangle", southern provinces of Thailand and southern Philippines as examples of uncontrolled territories posing a lasting security threats to their specific countries and the region at large.
Some of these uncontrolled territories have become safe havens for terrorists and pirates, starting points of international drug traffic routes.
"Of course, the primary responsibility to restore administration in these areas should rest with the state to which those belong," Ivanov said in a speech delivered in English. "However, in practice states are not always able to solve such problems on their own."
"In these cases, peacemaking becomes an effective tool to restore and support the legitimate administration in uncontrolled territories," he added.
Ivanov said Russia supported further expansion of U.N preventive and anti-crisis potential, enhanced quality and efficiency of peacekeeping activities. However, he made clear, Moscow wanted the process to be kept within straight legal framework.
"Peacekeeping mandates to be developed by United Nations Security Council should be realistic," he said. "Actions to restore administration in the uncontrolled territories taken in the framework of peacekeeping operations must be supported by strategies minimising risks to the civilians."
"It is also of particular importance to accompany those measures with programs intended to stabilise and restore security, foster sustainable institutions of power, launch infrastructure rehabilitation and promote social and economic development," Ivanov added.
Russia's attention to the issues of peacekeeping and uncontrolled territories to a big extent is warmed up by the situation in the former Soviet republics, including Georgia, Ivanov said.
After crushing Georgia in a five-day war, Russia recognized South Ossetia and another Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia as independent states and put them under its security umbrella.
"The presence of Russian peacekeepers has made it possible to maintain peace and order in the Transcaucasus region for many years, as well as to ensure decent living conditions for the population of the territories uncontrolled by official authorities," Ivanov said.
"The declaration of independence by Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August 2008 has clearly proved the unacceptability of using radical militant means to settle conflicts and demonstrated the importance of dialogue and search for solutions acceptable to all parties."
SINGAPORE, June 6 (RIA Novosti)
