OREANDA-NEWS. Since 2020, Russia has proposed moving the meetings of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with disarmament issues, to Vienna or Geneva due to the non-issuance of visas for a third of the Russian delegation. This was announced on Thursday by the first deputy representative of Russia to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky.

“In order to normalize the work of the First Committee and the UN Disarmament Commission, we consider it mandatory to include on the agenda the possibility of postponing their respective sessions in 2020 outside the United States, for example, in Vienna or Geneva”, he said at a committee meeting. “We are ready for substantive discussion of this issue during the current session of the UN General Assembly".

In an interview with a Russian media correspondent, Polyansky said that visas were not issued on time for a third of the Russian delegation, which was supposed to take part in the committee on Thursday. In this regard, he suggested taking a break in his work. “As long as the visa issue remains suspended, we suggest taking a technical pause to resolve it urgently”, he said at a meeting of the committee. “As soon as the visas are issued to all, without exception, our delegation, we are ready to resume the official session”.

"At the same time, we ask the UN Secretariat and the Bureau to take effective steps to stop the practice when one state shamelessly blocks the participation of delegations of other UN member states in the First Committee", the Russian diplomat added. Polyansky recalled that the United States, in accordance with the provisions of the 1947 agreement on UN headquarters, is required to provide unhindered access to UN headquarters to all official representatives of member states without exception and to issue visas “free of charge and as soon as possible”. "The right to host the UN headquarters is a privilege granted to the United States in exchange for these guarantees", he said.