The Russian presidency of the UN Security Council “is a slap in the face to the international community,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter on Saturday.
“Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council is a slap in the face for the international community. I urge current members to thwart any Russian attempts to abuse their presidency,” wrote Dmytro Kuleba.
The Russian presidency of the United Nations Security Council is a slap in the face for the international community. I urge the current members of the United Nations Security Council to thwart any Russian attempt to abuse their presidency. I also remember that Russia is outlawed in the UNSC: https://t.co/rZVC1pV0MY#BadRussiaJoke #InsecurityAdvice
– Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) April 1, 2023
This position is ceremonial and rotates among the 15 members of the body and, this April, it will be Moscow who will assume this position, despite the fact that Kiev has asked the members of the Security Council to block this change. The United States stated that it could not prevent Russia, a permanent member, from assuming the presidency.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse on Friday, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that Russia should not be a member of the UN Security Council, but explained that it is not possible to do so. change.
“The problem is that the UN Charter does not allow a change in its permanent members,” he said.
The Security Council will now be led by a country whose head of state is subject to an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.
In addition to Ukraine, several Western countries also showed outrage. The Estonian envoy to the UN, Rein Tammsar, also representing Latvia and Lithuania, expressed his great concern and considered it shameful, humiliating and dangerous for the credibility and functioning of this body.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis ironically also congratulated Russia on assuming the Presidency via his Twitter page.
“I look forward to some spirited discussions on Ukraine’s proposal for the fate of its warships,” Gabrielius Landsbergis wrote.
Congratulations to Russia on assuming the Presidency of the UN Security Council! I look forward to some spirited discussions on Ukraine’s proposal for the fate of its warships.
-Gabrielius Landsbergis (@GLandsbergis) April 1, 2023
Moscow last presided in February 2022, the same month it invaded Ukraine. Moscow has already assured that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov plans to lead a UN Security Council meeting on “effective multilateralism” and intends, on April 25, to hold a debate on the Middle East.
Source: TSF
