United Nations (EFE).- Russia assumes this Saturday the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, a responsibility that it will occupy for a month and that is fundamentally formal, but that has angered the Ukrainian government and has generated calls for a boycott.
During April, the Russian delegation will be in charge of managing the work agenda and chairing the meetings of the highest decision-making body of the United Nations, at whose head a Member State is placed each month based on a rotation in alphabetical order.
One of the main benefits of the position is that the Presidency can organize special sessions on matters that it considers particularly important and that are often attended by members of the Government.
In the Russian case, the Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, is expected to travel to New York to chair at least two of these meetings, one focused on respect for the United Nations Charter and the other on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, according to Diplomatic sources have advanced.
The official program, which will be approved and presented next Monday, is full in any case of routine meetings on the different conflicts and issues that the Council deals with, regardless of who chairs it.
A “bad joke” for Ukraine
For Ukraine, however, seeing Russia at the helm of the most important UN body is “a bad joke,” its Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this week.
“Russia usurped a seat, is waging a colonial war, their leader is a war criminal wanted by the ICC for kidnapping children,” Kuleba said via Twitter, referencing the Ukrainian position that Moscow illegally inherited the seat. of the Soviet Union and the recent decision of the International Criminal Court against Vladimir Putin.
In a recent opinion article, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, stressed that the Presidency gives Russia real power, recalling that the last time it held it was when the invasion began, and defending that there is a legal basis to exclude it from that position, and even to expel her from the Security Council.
This interpretation of the rules, however, clashes with that of most countries, including Western powers, which consider that the rules do not allow such a measure.
For now, the council countries are not expected to listen to calls for boycotts launched by some pro-Ukrainian organizations and, at best, may choose to send lower-ranking diplomats to some of the meetings hosted by Russia, according to diplomats.
In general, the rest of the powers consider that the work of the body should not be endangered and downplay the figure of the Presidency.
“I don’t think we should give it great importance,” said a Western diplomat this week who requested anonymity and who was convinced that Russia will exercise responsibility in a “professional” manner.
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