Russia prepares draft on relocating UN First Committee from US to Europe

BATTLE FOR WORLD / TASS | October 17, 2019: It’s now official as Russia is preparing a draft to be submitted to the committee by Thursday (Oct 17) after consulting with other countries. The prepared draft is a written proposal to the UN General Assembly to move the First Committee, dealing with disarmament issues, from New York to Geneva or Vienna, said a senior Russian diplomat to TASS on Wednesday (Oct 16).

“This project has been prepared, we have even conducted informal consultations,” noted Russia’s deputy UN envoy Andrey Belousov, as he commented about the results of Tuesday’s (Oct 15) session of the UN Committee on Relations with the Host Country. “The delegations who were interested in learning our stance, came to those consultations.”

“So far, we have received no instructions to hold back this document,” he noted and that “We will act in line with the instructions that we receive.”

The issue was raised during a session of the UN Committee on Relations with the Host Country and the global organization’s envoy to the meeting supported Russia’s opinion that the US had violated its commitments as a host nation. Russia’s deputy UN envoy Gennady Kuzmin said that the matter can be resolved in an arbitration process between the UN and Washington DC.

END