Russia says US did not grant visa for vice minister to attend UN
WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) – The United States has denied Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov a visa to attend the UN Summit, Russia’s ambassador to the UN said on Tuesday. He assessed the Security Council meeting and described it as a violation of US obligations under the UN Headquarters Agreement.
Vassily Nebenzia made the comment at the 15-member UN Security Council meeting chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, which Alimov plans to attend.
The State Department and the USUN mission did not immediately respond to questions about Nebenzia’s statement.
“The Russian delegation… at today’s meeting, upon the invitation of Foreign Minister Wang Yi, should have been represented at the level of Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Alimov, who oversees issues related to the United Nations,” Nebenzia said. he said.
“However, despite all our attempts to persuade the US side to grant him a visa, this visa was ultimately not granted,” he added.
Nebenzia said that under the UN Headquarters Agreement, access to the UN headquarters in New York “must be provided to all member state officials, with the exception of none.”
He said Russia also sees the issue as “an egregious example of disrespect for China’s chairmanship of the Security Council and the United Nations Charter, which is the issue under discussion today.”
Nebenzia said the charter was under serious pressure and accused Western-led countries of using double standards to maintain its dominance. He said the remilitarization in Germany and Japan were dangerous developments that posed a threat to global security and undone the consequences of the Second World War.
“The policy of remilitarization undermines the UN-centered international system,” he said.
“Countries defeated in the Second World War are looking for plausible excuses to rewrite the results, and their rhetoric should not mislead anyone. This is a very dangerous trend that requires the attention of the entire international community.”
Wang said the UN Charter needed to be “revitalized” amid increasing global instability and conflict, warning that “a giant ship of global civilization is sailing into dangerous waters.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the meeting that the world is facing the highest number of conflicts since the founding of the United Nations at the end of the Second World War and faces “new and unknown risks to peace and security”.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Jonathan Landay and Simon Lewis; Editing by Caitlin Webber, Chizu Nomiyama and Sanjeev Miglani)
