NEW YORK. New York spring for Serghei Lavrov awaited at the United Nations on the occasion of the Russian rotating presidency of the Security Council. The Foreign Minister chairs the meeting on the Middle East on April 25, explains Maria Zakharova, as well as, the previous day, “the high-level open debate of the CDS on “effective multilateralism through the defense of the principles of the United Nations Charter”» . A key event, as Zakharova herself defined it, because it will mainly focus on Ukraine.
The sortie of the head of Moscow’s diplomacy only amplifies the controversy over the month of Russia’s presidency of the CDS, even more so because it comes after the arrest warrant of Vladimir Putin issued by the International Criminal Court. The idea that the aggressor in the war in Ukraine is at the head of the body created to maintain international peace and security for thirty days raises protests and perplexities from many quarters, and unleashes the wrath of Kiev. “It’s a bad joke, Russia has usurped her seat, it is waging a colonial war, its president is a war criminal wanted by the ICC for child abduction,” thundered Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Which once again asks the other members of the CDS to “delegitimize and corner” Moscow, which also holds the right of veto being one of the five permanent members. Ironically, the last time Russia had a rotating presidency was in February 2022, the very month it ushered in its invasion of Ukraine.
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However, some believe Lavrov’s blitz is an opportunity to revitalize the channels of behind-the-scenes dialogue between the United States and Russia, strictly preparatory to any hypothesis of truce. However, several experts believe it is unlikely that Russia will effectively condition the progress of the works. The president of the UN body changes with a monthly rotation following the alphabetical order of the fifteen members, and according to the Charter of the United Nations all member states are obliged to respect the decisions of the Council.
If the symbolic value is important, the power to influence decisions is very little, although it will obviously use the role to try to create divisions. Perhaps the main risk is the use, as happened in the past, of procedural rules to complicate or delay meetings, for example for the participation of the Kiev delegation. Among the other central meetings scheduled for next month, as Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia explained in an interview with Tass, April 10 will discuss the transfer of Western arms to Ukraine. The conviction that Moscow’s emissaries will lead this presidency in a professional manner reverberates among the corridors of the Glass Palace. “The monthly rotating presidency is part of the rules of the UN Security Council. The importance of the Russian month of presidency in the overall equation of the Ukrainian conflict should not be overestimated”, affirms the Italian permanent representative at the UN, Ambassador Maurizio Massari.
Kiev has long been asking for Moscow to be expelled from the Council, a move that is impossible to achieve given that a vote by the Council itself would be necessary, where Russia itself has the right to veto as a permanent member. However, Nebenzia described to Tass the idea of depriving Moscow of the right to preside over the Council “simply absurd”: “Russia is the continuation of the USSR, a subject of international law which has inherited not only the rights and obligations of its predecessor , but also its legal character, officially recognized by the international community. Exclusion from the Council is impossible without changes to the UN Charter, just as it is impossible to deprive Russia of the right to preside over the Council”.