UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd November, 2019) Russian diplomats still have not seen any improvements regarding the issue of US refusing to grant visas to several delegates for their work at the UN General Assembly First and Second Committees and plan to raise the question in their bilateral contacts with Washington, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva Andrey Belousov told Sputnik.
"There are no improvements; the US authorities have not undertaken any steps. The situation remains the same, yet, we are not going to shift our attention from this issue and will address it on the level of bilateral contacts with the United States, as well as work with the UN Secretariat," Belousov said on Friday.
Belousov pointed out that attempting to resolve the issue of visa denials is not the responsibility of Russian diplomats and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should settle the problem with the host country.
"Our move to submit this issue for the consideration of the First Committee is a necessary action because we see that all attempts by the Secretariat to resolve it are not leading to any results," Belousov added.
The United States failed to issues visas to allow 18 Russian diplomats to participate in this year's meetings of the UN General Assembly First and Sixth Committees, which deal with disarmament and international security and legal matters, respectively.
In October, the UN Committee on Relations with the Host Country convened a meeting to address the question of diplomats from Russia, Cuba and Iran, among others, not receiving US visas to work at the organization's headquarters in New York.
During the meeting, it was stated that Guterres believed the United States violated visa obligations as a host country by denying visas to members of the Russian delegation.
Russia's Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy earlier in October proposed to shift the location of the First Committee from New York to Vienna or Geneva, citing obstacles Russian diplomats have faced when trying to obtain US visas.
