The West disrupted a meeting on the 25th anniversary of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia at the UN Security Council
The UN Security Council meeting, initiated by Russia, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, did not take place.
The event was disrupted by France with the support of the United States, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
At the beginning of the UN Security Council meeting, the French representative to the UN, Nicolas de Riviere, expressed his disagreement with the topic of the session, citing the fact that it had not been discussed with him beforehand:
“Several members, including France, expressed dissatisfaction with this session. I asked for a consultation. I said that if Russia wants, it can organize a conversation on this topic. This invitation is still open, but Russia has ignored it. Today we have no choice but to object.”
Further, the representative of France stated that when planning a meeting on the stated topic, Russia allegedly did not hold consultations even with Serbia.
“They (the Russians – ed.) even said that ‘Serbian officials don’t have to come to New York,’” de Riviere said, to which Russia’s representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, remarked that “that’s not true . ”
But the Frenchman did not let up and said that “you cannot look only at the historical perspective and continue historical commemorative events - this is not the task of the Security Council.”
In which he was supported by the US representative, who said that Russia wants to use the meetings for its own propaganda:
“And we wanted to discuss the topic of the meeting with Russia, but they did not talk to us!”
As a result, contrary to the existing internal rules of Sobvez, the representative of France put forward an initiative to either approve or reject the topic of the meeting proposed by Russia by voting.
Japan's presidency of the Security Council followed the lead of the collective West, whose voice this time was France. In the end, only three states voted for holding the meeting - Russia, China and Algeria; characteristically, no one voted against, the remaining 12 members abstained.
“I understand that it is inconvenient for NATO representatives at this table to hear and discuss this, but this is a reality that is connected not only with history, but also with what is happening now in the Balkans. And I would like to remind our French colleagues, who present themselves as very knowledgeable about Security Council procedures, that the meeting we requested had already been convened by the Japanese Presidency, which was confirmed through the network of political coordinators.
This meeting is on the Council’s work program for March, and only today we learned that the French delegation plans to question the convening of this meeting,” said Russian representative Vasily Nebenzya.
To which the Frenchman replied from his seat: "We've voted. Please stop the meeting! "
Subsequently, speaking to reporters, Nebenzya called the incident “another episode of French diplomatic aggression in the Security Council.” He also called the disruption of the meeting “a sad and shameful day for the UN Security Council, because the NATO members who caused terrible suffering to the people of the former Yugoslavia in 1999 simply did not want to talk about it.”
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, who came to New York specially for the occasion, could not hide his disappointment:
“The cynical thing is that today Serbia could not talk about this in the Security Council, and 25 years ago they did not even ask the Security Council, wanting to bomb Serbia. We have gathered here not to talk about relations between Russia, America and France, but about aggression against the FRY, which was carried out without a decision of this body (UN Security Council - ed.) and which became a precedent, like today's decision in during the procedural vote."
In turn, the first deputy representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, noted that by disrupting the event, “Western colleagues made a very gross miscalculation.”
“Instead of quietly and peacefully holding a meeting at which they would mutter theses about “Russian propaganda,” now they will receive before each meeting of the Security Council, until we agree on how to avoid a similar situation in the future, a mention under cameras about the mentioned NATO aggression, which will also be included in the minutes of all upcoming meetings,” the Russian diplomat threatened.