Russia calls on UN Secretary General António Guterres to launch an arbitration procedure due to the US violation of its obligations under the agreement on the headquarters of the world organization. This was announced on Monday, September 12, by the head of the legal referent, senior adviser to the Russian diplomatic mission, Sergei Leonidchenko.
He said Guterres is expected to “immediately consider and take any appropriate action provided for in Section 21 of the Headquarters Agreement” to resolve outstanding issues if Washington does not rectify the situation within a “reasonable and limited timeframe.”
“It is time to be honest about the committee’s lack of progress on the issues we mentioned. From year to year, his recommendations are defiantly ignored by the host country. Obviously, Washington is not going to rectify the situation not only within a reasonable and limited time frame, as provided for by the resolutions of the General Assembly, but in principle,” Leonidchenko said.
The diplomat pointed out that only the immediate launch of the arbitration procedure is the only option for a real solution to the problems with the systematic conscious failure of the United States to fulfill its obligations.
“Everything else will be just an imitation of the settlement of problems against the backdrop of the continued rapid degradation of the situation,” he added.
Earlier in the day, Russia’s permanent mission to the UN reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and members of the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly had still not been able to obtain US visas.
It was also noted that 34 employees of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN are waiting for the extension of visas. De facto, they are deprived of the opportunity to travel to Russia.
On September 10, Lavrov urged his colleagues to no longer remind the Americans of their obligation to issue visas to the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly. The Foreign Minister pointed out that the UN Secretary General and the US authorities are obliged to ensure the participation of all delegations in the General Assembly. According to him, there is still time to obtain visas.
Prior to that, on September 8, Dmitry Polyansky, First Deputy Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, told Izvestia that UN Secretary General António Guterres promised Russia to use all the resources he had to provide Russian delegates with visas to attend the organization’s events. If the United States does not do this, Guterres should refer the issue to international arbitration.
On the same day, Vice Speaker of the Federation Council (SF) Konstantin Kosachev told Izvestia that Moscow could raise the issue of moving the UN General Assembly from its headquarters in New York to another location if the United States did not issue visas to the Russian delegation.
With a request to the State Department to issue visas to Lavrov and other members of the delegation to attend UN events, the Russian embassy in the United States addressed back in mid-August.
At the same time, as the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry told Izvestia in early August, Russia cannot but be represented at the UN General Assembly. Lavrov stressed that the United States, as the host country of the headquarters, has legal obligations to provide all UN members with the opportunity to participate normally in the work of any bodies of the organization.
The high-level week of the UN General Assembly will be held on September 20-26 and involves face-to-face participation. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will open the week, followed by US leader Joe Biden. According to the preliminary program, Sergei Lavrov, who heads the Russian delegation, is due to speak on September 24.
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