Russia will bring three issues to the UN Security Council during its temporary presidency in April, which began Saturday: multilateralism and the UN Charter; the violation of agreements that regulate the export of conventional weapons; and the Middle East, mainly the conflict between Israel and Palestine. However, Russia does not propose a meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine, although it may be mentioned at some point during discussions on armaments and multilateralism. The announcement was made by Russia’s representative to the UN’s highest body, Vasily Nebenzya, in an interview reproduced by the Russian diplomatic mission to the UN.
In addition to the issues that the Security Council regularly deals with, regardless of which country holds the presidency, on April 10 Russia will raise the issue of “risks arising from violation of agreements regulating the export of arms and military products”. According to Nebenzya, many arms-exporting countries “openly disregard their own national legislation, as well as international agreements designed to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands”. For Nebenzya, as a result of this violation of arms export agreements, “international clandestine markets have been flooded with undetectable weapons that pose a serious threat”. While Nebenzya did not mention specific cases, Russia has been highly critical of Western arms supplies to Ukraine, a key factor in curbing the Russian invasion of the country.
On April 24, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will chair a Security Council meeting on “effective multilateralism in upholding the principles of the Charter of the United Nations”. “We ask UN members to look beyond the present moment and present their vision of how we could build a truly multipolar world through joint efforts, in which the interests of all states would be guaranteed,” said Nebenzya on this issue.
On April 25, Lavrov will lead another Russian-sponsored meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. “We believe it will be a good opportunity to discuss the complex dynamics of the situation in the Middle East, especially the impasse in the process of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue and the increase in tensions,” said the head of the Russian mission to the UN.
Russia’s arrival at the Security Council presidency, which is essentially a matter of protocol, has infuriated the Ukrainian government and prompted calls for a boycott. For Ukraine, seeing Russia at the head of the UN’s most important body is “a bad joke”, Russian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this week.
Nebenzya said that criticism of the Russian presidency of the Security Council “has been heard regularly, especially actively since February 24 [aniversário da invasão russa à Ucrânia], as well as calls to deprive us of permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council”. The diplomat insisted that Russia is the legitimate continuation of the Soviet Union, “a subject of international law that has inherited not only the rights and obligations of its predecessor, but also its own legal character.” “Without Russia, not only would the work of the Security Council be meaningless, but also that of the UN as a whole, and that would mean the destruction of the entire established system of international relations,” he argued.
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