Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

The right of reply by Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations at the Security Council meeting on Non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction

Like other members of the Security Council, I too am pleased to see the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan presiding over today’s meeting, which is dedicated to strengthening confidence-building measures.

Unfortunately, around the world and in the Security Council in particular, there is indeed insufficient confidence and insufficient trust, and that is evident. What kind of trust or confidence can there be if some countries — and given that Russia was mentioned by name, I will take the liberty to mention them by name: the United States and the United Kingdom — continue to manipulate the Security Council and the social sentiment of the international community?

Perhaps their statements were written in advance, and they did not have sufficient time to revise their drafts after they had heard our statement. But, no, this is being done deliberately. We are deliberately not being heard, and our positions are being distorted. They erroneously claim that we are responsible for closing the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) because we vetoed the draft resolution on its extension.

However, they shamefully forget to mention that we proposed a draft resolution that would have extended the JIM and improve its effectiveness, efficiency, professionalism and impartiality, which they did not allowed to be adopted.

We proposed that draft resolution because the JIM completely discredited itself with a mendacious report that withstood no criticism. I would ask a couple of rhetorical questions.

Who in essence vetoed our draft resolution, and who was the last to do it? It is those very countries — the United States and the United Kingdom — that, without blinking an eye, are today accusing us of doing this.

Who closed the JIM? I will say once again what was already repeatedly said in consultations on the Syrian chemical-weapons dossier: Stop your games at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons — we know the aim of those games — and demonstrate your readiness to establish a genuinely independent and professional mechanism, if you want honest cooperation, and not a smokescreen for political manipulation”.

The needed trust would then emerge. There should be no illusions about this. We need a new mechanism that is approved by the Security Council. In our view, any other alternatives or agreements in a narrow format will be illegitimate.