MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Defending the United Nation’s role as a guarantor of global stability remains one of Moscow’s foreign policy priorities, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
According to her, the UN is an organization that guarantees the balance of interests in the world, it is not "a tool used to promote the interests of a country or a group of countries." "It is an organization that should guarantee that global balance is maintained," she noted.
"Defending the United Nation’s role as a guarantor of global stability and an important instrument helping maintain global balance remains one of our priorities," Zakharova stressed. "It is enshrined in the foreign policy concept approved by the Russian president. This is what the foreign ministry’s everyday work is based on."
When commenting on the rumors saying that US President Donald Trump may cut US funding to the United Nations, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said that it was better to wait for the new US administration to finalize its foreign policy strategy.
Zakharova pointed out that over the past decades, Washington’s approach to the United Nations changed from attempts to bring the organization down as useless to steps aimed at gaining a majority in major UN agencies. Both approaches are wrong, she noted.
As for funding, in Zakharova’s words, it is "a very complicated matter because the United States is one of the main sponsors of the UN and at the same time one of its main debtors." "This is a difficult virtual matter, some things need to be clarified: for instance, what does cutting of funding refer to - does it mean that the US will reduce debt payments or it will decrease the number of programs it participates in," she said. "They need to make things clear.".