Arria-formula Meeting on Natural Resources
On Monday morning (13 July), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will convene an Arria-formula meeting titled “The Normative Gaps Linking Natural Resources and Peace: Foundations and Perspectives”. The DRC’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Francophonie, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, is expected to chair the meeting. The briefers had not been confirmed at the time of writing.
The meeting will begin at 10 am EDT and take place in Conference Room 11 at UN Headquarters. It is open to all UN member states and permanent observers, as well as representatives of regional organisations, relevant UN entities, civil society, academia, and the private sector. The DRC intends to circulate a chair’s summary of the meeting.
The concept note that the DRC has circulated highlights natural resources as strategic assets for development, particularly in advancing the transition to green energy, driving digital transformation, and strengthening the resilience of global supply chains. It also underscores the increasing demand for critical minerals, which is projected to nearly triple by 2030. The concept note additionally focuses on the adverse effects of the illicit exploitation and trafficking of natural resources, noting that these activities finance armed groups, perpetuate cycles of conflict and violence, and undermine state authority.
While the Security Council has previously addressed the links between natural resources and insecurity, the concept note argues that its approach has been fragmented, focusing primarily on country- or region-specific situations and sanctions regimes. The note further maintains that existing regional and international mechanisms aimed at curbing the illegal exploitation of natural resources are also “fragmented, heterogeneous and insufficiently coordinated”, limiting their effectiveness. Such mechanisms include the Kimberley Process, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and the Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), among several others. The concept note encourages participants to consider the achievements and limitations of the current approach and the added value of a more coherent framework.
Through this Arria-formula meeting, the DRC aims to facilitate a broader reflection on these challenges and explore ways to develop a more harmonised normative framework to enhance natural resource governance that advances peace and security while fostering equitable and sustainable development. According to the concept note, one objective of the meeting is to “assess the political and operational feasibility” of such a framework and “propose concrete pathways” to that end, which could include a thematic debate or a resolution, among other possibilities. As such, Monday’s discussion is expected to inform the high-level open debate on natural resources that the DRC intends to convene on 22 July under the “Maintenance of international peace and security” agenda item. DRC President Félix Tshisekedi is expected to chair that meeting, which is one of the country’s signature events during its July Council presidency.
The Council has recently devoted more attention to the issue of natural resources in the context of current geopolitical dynamics. Major powers are increasingly competing to secure a reliable supply of natural resources, particularly the critical minerals required for the clean energy, electronics, defence, and aerospace industries.
In this context, securing critical mineral supply chains has become a central focus of US diplomatic engagement under the administration of US President Donald Trump. During its March Council presidency, the US convened a signature event on energy, critical minerals, and security, which was also held under the “Maintenance of international peace and security” agenda item. US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright chaired the meeting, and Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo briefed. (For more information, see our 4 March What’s in Blue story.)
In July 2025, then-Council member Sierra Leone also convened an Arria-formula meeting on critical minerals, with the objective of strengthening international awareness of the link between critical minerals and insecurity in Africa and identifying actionable policy measures to address the issue. (For more information, see our 8 July 2025 What’s in Blue story.)
With its Arria-formula meeting and signature event this month, it appears that the DRC is seeking to generate additional momentum on the issue as a priority of its 2026-27 Council term. The DRC possesses significant reserves of critical minerals and plays a central role in global supply chains, attracting the attention of major powers and multinational corporations. At the same time, the country has long faced security challenges pertaining to natural resource exploitation, with the illicit extraction and trafficking of minerals fuelling conflict and instability, particularly in its eastern provinces.
Council members appear broadly supportive of addressing the linkage between natural resources and armed conflict. Most recognise the need to tackle the root causes and structural drivers of conflict, including by curbing the illegal exploitation of natural resources, which continues to serve as a source of revenue for armed groups operating across numerous conflict settings. However, some members might be reluctant to support a new thematic product on the issue. Most recently, the topic complicated Council negotiations on a draft resolution extending the 1533 DRC sanctions regime, during which some members sought to highlight illicit natural resource exploitation in the context of developments in eastern DRC and to strengthen relevant language in this regard. Other Council members apparently opposed this approach, arguing that the issue should be addressed through other national, regional, and international frameworks. (For more information, see our 28 June What’s in Blue story.)
The Security Council has not adopted a standalone thematic product on the nexus between natural resources and conflict since 2007, when Belgium spearheaded a presidential statement on the issue. The Council has referenced the topic in other thematic products since then, however. In 2013, Rwanda authored a presidential statement on conflict prevention in Africa that contained language on the illegal exploitation of natural resources as a cause of conflict, the potential role of the UN in building national capacity for effective management of natural resources, and the importance of multilateral mechanisms for commodity tracking and revenue transparency as conflict prevention tools. In 2019, the Security Council adopted resolution 2457, spearheaded by Equatorial Guinea, in support of the African Union’s (AU) “Silencing the Guns” initiative. This resolution also referenced the illicit exploitation, trafficking, and trade of natural resources and their contribution to the outbreak, escalation, or continuation of conflicts. In 2021, Kenya facilitated the adoption of a presidential statement on the Great Lakes region that explored ways to curb the illegal exploitation and trade of natural resources.
The DRC is expected to build on these and other previous Council presidential statements and resolutions in proposing a new thematic product, which may have a particular focus on addressing the normative gaps in natural resource governance described in the concept note for Monday’s Arria-formula meeting. The DRC may use both that meeting and the signature event later this month to gauge Council members’ views on the possibility of such a product. It may also draw on the perspectives shared by Council members and other participants in further developing and refining possible options for future Council activity on this issue.
