The plane that transports the head of Russian diplomacy to New York, where he will participate in the UN General Assembly, will have to avoid the airspace of the countries that have closed it to Russian planes due to the war in Ukraine.
“The route is non-stop and will fly around airspace closed by hostile countries” with an expected flight duration of 12.5 hours, Sergei Ryabkov, Russian deputy foreign minister and Sergei Lavrov’s number two, said on Tuesday, quoted by the news agency. Russian. TASS.
Russian planes are prohibited from flying over the airspace of the European Union (EU), as well as that of other non-EU countries, such as the United Kingdom, Norway or Switzerland, in addition to Canada and the United States itself.
The route that Lavrov’s plane will take has not been announced.
For the United States, however, Lavrov and his delegation received the necessary visas to enter the country, but only to participate in the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, where the head of Russian diplomacy will make a speech and will have about two dozen. meetings bilateral agreements, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week.
At that time, the “logistical problem” related to Lavrov’s trip to the United States had yet to be addressed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated today that Lavrov will defend Moscow’s position of putting an “end to the unipolar world” in his speech at the UN General Assembly.
After receiving credentials from foreign ambassadors in Moscow, Putin promised to uphold Russia’s “sovereign foreign policy” and accused the United States of wanting to impose “hegemony” in the UN General Assembly.
Although he sent Lavrov to New York, Putin does not plan to make any speeches at this year’s General Assembly, as Russia’s intervention in Ukraine has been widely condemned around the world.
“The development of multipolarity faces resistance from those who fight to maintain a hegemonic role in world affairs and control everything: Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. […] But this cannot go on forever. It is impossible,” Putin said.
“We in Russia are not going to discard our sovereign path. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, we want to promote a unifying international agenda. […] and contribute to the regulation of serious regional crises,” he added.
The high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly began on Tuesday, at the UN headquarters in New York, and will continue until next Monday, with the presence of dozens of heads of state and government, including the Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa.
This is the first General Assembly since the start of the war in Ukraine and the first in person since the start of the pandemic.
The event is being held under the theme “A Watershed Moment: Transformative Solutions for Interconnected Challenges”, and will focus on the war in Ukraine and the global food, climate and energy crises.
Source: TSF
