Statement by the First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy at the organizational session of the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security
Madam Chair,
Once again, we are compelled to raise the issue of a protracted and unresolved problem of the functioning of the UNGA 1st Committee and the work of disarmament mechanisms on the New York platform as a whole. The problem is closely related to the failure of the host country to comply with its obligations to provide the delegates with unimpeded access to the UN Headquarters in New York to participate in activities within the Organization. Unfortunately, the American side continues to disregard its obligations as a State on whose territory the UN Headquarters is located. As some of the leading members of the Russian delegation still have no visas, we are again put in a position where we are unable to fully participate in this session of the First Committee.
We would like to recall once again that, under the provisions of the 1947 UN Headquarters Agreement, the United States is obliged to ensure unhindered access to the UN Headquarters for all official representatives of Member States without exception and to grant them visas “without charge and as promptly as possible”. The right to host UN Headquarters is a special privilege granted to the U.S. in exchange for these guarantees.
UNGA Resolution 78/116 – “Report of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country” – clearly states that the US is expected to “ensure the issuance of entry visas to all representatives of Member States … in a timely manner” (I would like to emphasize here the word ALL) so that they could “travel … to New York on United Nations business”. It also reaffirms the unrestricted right of persons traveling to New York as representatives of Member States to participate in UN events, and to “enter the United States for the purpose of proceeding to the Headquarters district”.
Washington has no grounds whatsoever to unilaterally block the participation of representatives of Member States in events held under UN auspices. Much less to decide for them who should be part of or lead national delegations and who should not.
We are not going to tolerate such practices. It is our legitimate right to decide on the composition of the Russian delegation to attend United Nations events. And we are not going to surrender this right. We would like to formally request the UN Secretariat to submit to the First Committee a report on the measures taken in response to our numerous appeals in previous years to unblock access to the UN Headquarters for all Russian delegation members participating in the work of the First Committee.
As long as the “visa issue” remains pending and as long as there remain members of the Russian delegation who have not obtained visas, we propose taking a technical procedural pause (until the next meeting of the First Committee on October 7) to urgently resolve this problem. As soon as visas are issued to all members of our delegation without exception, we will be ready to resume the official session. As long as the United States fails to comply with its obligations to the United Nations in terms of ensuring the work of all designated official representatives of UN Member States, we propose that we proceed with our deliberations in the format of informal consultations.
Simultaneously, we request that the Secretary General and the UN Secretariat, as well as the Bureau of the UNGA First Committee take tangible steps to stop the practice whereby one state unscrupulously blocks the participation of delegations of other UN member states in the work of the First Committee. We also request to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country and to invoke arbitration provisions.
We urge all colleagues participating in today's meeting to stand in solidarity with us. We know that a number of states are regularly confronted with the same unscrupulous practices on the part of the host country.
I thank you for your attention.
