Elaine French
Deputy Political Coordinator
U.S. Mission to the United Nations
New York City
September 10, 2019
AS DELIVERD
Thank you, Mr. President. We would like to thank Assistant Secretary-General Keita, for your briefing today and Ambassador Vieira for all your important work chairing your PVC and Guinea-Bissau.
The United States is pleased that Guinea-Bissau’s leadership, with the able assistance of ECOWAS, was able to agree to a timeline for elections in 2019. We welcome the legislative elections that took place in March, as the focus shifts to the presidential elections scheduled for November 24, we must remain faithful to the consensus agreements that helped create the country’s hard won, though tenuous, stability.
We look forward to free, fair, and transparent elections on November 24. We welcome the generous contributions ECOWAS has made in both financial support and equipment. We encourage Guinea-Bissau’s regional neighbors and the international community to help support the government’s efforts to prepare for and carry out these important elections.
Along with the Secretary-General, we remain concerned about the continued threat that drug trafficking and organized crime pose to Guinea-Bissau and the broader sub-region. We applaud the Bissau-Guinean police’s seizure and destruction of two tons of cocaine in Guinea-Bissau in the past week.
And we welcome the creation of a dedicated unit in UNIOGBIS for combatting drug trafficking and transnational organized crime, and we urge continued support for strengthening the UN Office on Drugs and Crime presence in Guinea-Bissau. Thank you, Mr. President.
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