WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) – Russia’s U.N. ambassador said on Tuesday that the United States did not grant a visa for Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov to attend a U.N. Security Council meeting and called it a breach of U.S. obligations under the U.N. Headquarters Agreement.
Vassily Nebenzia made the comment at meeting of the 15-member U.N. Security Council chaired by China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi that he said Alimov had intended to attend.
The State Department did not immediately respond to questions about Nebenzia’s statement.
“The Russian delegation … based on the invitation of the Foreign Minister Wang Yi should have been represented during today’s meeting at the level of the Deputy Foreign Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexander Alimov, who oversees matters related to the United Nations,” Nebenzia said.
“However, despite all of our attempts to persuade the U.S. side to issue a visa to him, that visa was ultimately not granted,” he added.
Nebenzia said that under the U.N. Headquarters Agreement, access to U.N. headquarters in New York “needs to be provided for all officials of member states, barring none.”
He said Russia also viewed the issue as “an egregious instance of disrespect for the Chinese presidency of the Security Council, and of the topic that is under discussion today, that of the Charter of the United Nations.”
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Chizu Nomiyama)
