Russia today assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council amid criticism from Ukraine, which described it as a “slap in the face” for diplomacy and called on members of the body to “frustrate any attempt” by the Kremlin to “abuse of his new position.
The Security Council is made up of 15 countries (five permanent and ten rotating) which take turns in the presidency for a month.
Russia had last taken over as head of the UN’s highest decision-making body in early February 2022, weeks before launching its offensive in Ukraine.
Moscow will have little influence over the decisions that are made, but it will control the agenda.
The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasili Nebenzia, highlighted in statements to the Russian news agency TASS that it will allow them to “supervise” certain debates, including the one related to arms control.
Thus, they will raise the need for “a new world order” to “replace the unipolar order,” reported the Europa Press news agency.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to chair a UN Security Council meeting on “effective multilateralism” later this month, according to Moscow.
Ukraine, which has called on several occasions to expel Russia from the Security Council for invading its territory, considered it a “slap” in the face of the international community.”
“I urge the current members of the United Nations Security Council to thwart any attempt by Russia to abuse its presidency,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted today.
Hours before, he had indicated that it was “a bad joke.”
“Russia usurped his position, is waging a colonial war, its leader is a war criminal wanted by the ICC (International Criminal Court) for kidnapping children,” Kuleba said, referring to the arrest warrant issued last month against the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The United States stressed that Russia, as a permanent member of the Security Council and with veto power, cannot be prevented from assuming the post.
In addition to Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and China are permanent members and have veto power.
“Unfortunately, Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council, so there is no practical way at the legal level to avoid that reality,” said the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked by the press. .
In February 2022, Russia already vetoed a resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine. China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained.
In September, Moscow vetoed a resolution calling for it to reverse the annexation of four regions of Ukraine.
The strategy is not new: as early as 2003, the United States had turned a deaf ear to the mandates of the UN General Assembly and had used its veto power before the Security Council to invade Iraq.
For the Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mikhail Podoliak, the assumption of Russia at the head of the Council is “another violation of international law.”
Russia, “an entity that wages an aggressive war, violates the norms of International Humanitarian Law and Criminal Law, destroys the UN Charter and abandons nuclear security cannot preside over the most important security organization in the world,” he asserted.
Source: Ambito
