“Many people are asking if Lavrov will come.” Russian delegation at the UN did not receive a US visa

On August 18, Russian Ambassador to the USA Anatoly Antonov will visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He stressed that the issue of visas to the members of the Russian delegation at the UN General Assembly will be the main topic of negotiations with American diplomats. The event will take place from September 20-26. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was appointed head of the delegation.

“The embassy has already appealed to the White House, the State Department, with a request to fulfill the obligations of the country where the UN headquarters is located, and to immediately issue visas to the minister and all members of the Russian delegation.” Antonov said on the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

According to him, many turn to Russian diplomats with the question of whether Lavrov will come to New York.

“Therefore, we can safely say that many would like to see Sergei Viktorovich at the UN General Assembly. Let me remind you of the minister’s recent trips to Asia and Africa: they were waiting for him there, they wanted a meeting,” said the Russian ambassador to the United States.

In response to this statement, the international organization announced that they would continue to assist delegates in issuing American visas.

“We are always working and will continue to do so to facilitate the issuance of visas to all those who need to attend UN events,” Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General, told RIA Novosti.

At the end of February this year, Washington banned him from entering the United States as part of sanctions against the Russian minister. Additionally, the restrictions include freezing assets in the United States, as well as prohibiting doing business with “blacklisted” ones. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the sanctions against Lavrov were illegitimate and that the minister did not have bank accounts in other countries.

In addition, the US authorities do not have the right to hinder the representatives and officials of the UN member states if they want to attend the organization’s activities. The relevant agreement was signed in 1947 between the UN and the United States as the host country of the headquarters.

In practice, however, US diplomatic services do not issue visas to all UN delegates. The Russian Federation Council believes that refusal to enter the United States will not come as a surprise to Moscow. This view was expressed by Senator Grigory Krasin, a member of the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly, in a conversation with Izvestia:

“This would be a major violation. [Вашингтона] obligations undertaken. But in the current situation there will be nothing surprising, because Americans have already crossed the line that outlines common sense and international law.

Another member of the delegation, State Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky, believes that the risk of visa denial is “significant”, and Senator Konstantin Kosachev said, “The Americans themselves have been shown as an unpredictable side in just this situation, but in many other actions.

The issue of issuing visas to Russian delegates at the UN General Assembly came to the fore at the beginning of the month. On August 5, Lavrov said he had previously sent a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres that the United States had not fulfilled its obligations as the host country of the UN headquarters. According to him, Guterres has to call on the American side that he was “behaving well”.

On the same day, it was learned that the UN Secretary General had already discussed this issue with Lavrov and the US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Guterres’ official representative, Stefan Dujarric, told RIA Novosti that UN representatives “maintained close contacts with relevant missions at the UN, including the host country and the Russian Federation”.

In the United States, in response to such accusations from Russia, they emphasize that visa issues are confidential under US law. At the same time, the American side accepts its obligations under the agreement with the UN and “takes them seriously”.