UN, September 9. /TASS/. Russia may raise the issue of relocating important international talks from UN headquarters in the US due to the "visa warfare" waged by the US, Russian Special Presidential Representative for Cooperation in International Information Security Andrei Krutskikh said on Monday during a session of the UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on cybersecurity.
"The US are in fact censoring the composition of our negotiating teams, and extending the 'visa warfare' towards the UN," he said. "If such practice continues, then Russia, along with other like-minded states, will raise the question of at least to relocate from the USA all the important international negotiations, including, of course, OEWG and GGE."
Krutskikh accused Washington of hindering "normal UN diplomatic process." "This is a direct violation by the host country of the UN headquarters of its obligations both towards the Organization and to all states forming the UN family," he added. "I emphasize — we do not desperately want to visit the US, we are heading to the United Nations."
"In the UN process, all states are equal and sovereign. It is up to them and only them to determine the composition of their delegations at the negotiations under the UN auspices," the diplomat continued. "However, in recent times not only Russia, but other countries already almost on a regular basis faced a situation when members of the delegation either do not get a visa at all, including for OEWG sessions, or get them when it is already too late," he noted.