The Western Sahara issue

The UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, will hold a new session of informal talks on Western Sahara on February 10 and 11. This is the second session of informal discussions, following those that took place in August in Dürnstein, in Austria. As President of the Security Council for the month of February 2010, France supports the Personal Envoy in this process. The goal of these discussions is to prepare for a fifth session of official negotiations, in order to move towards a political solution that is fair, lasting and mutually acceptable to the parties within the framework of the United Nations.

As you know, by adopting resolution 1871 in April 2009, the Security Council urged the parties to demonstrate realism and a spirit of compromise so that the negotiations could enter an intensive and substantial phase. The Security Council also took note of the parties’ acceptance of Christopher Ross’s proposal to hold informal talks.