UNITED NATIONS, March 6. /TASS/. The US has denied visas to some Russian delegates that were planning to attend a session of a UN open-ended working group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies, Irina Tyazhlova, a Russian representative, said at a meeting of the group on Monday.
"The US has again, without any reason, in an egregious manner, denied visas to some members of the Russian interagency delegation. That same step had earlier been taken with regards to the head (of the delegation - TASS). It’s a gross violation of Washington’s commitments to host and ensure operation of UN headquarters," the diplomat said.
"Representatives of our country in the open-ended working group are known as competent, result-oriented negotiators. They have the trust of their colleagues and the chairman of the group," Tyazhlova said. "The creation of obstacles to the participation of the delegation in the work of the group is essentially a move to undermine the principle of the sovereign equality of states - one of the key principles of the UN Charter. As far as we know, the practice of US visa denials is also applied to delegations of other countries, as a result of which UN member states find themselves in an unequal position in the negotiation process."
"The US essentially influences the formation of national delegations. Despite the obstacles, we are sure that all the members of the group see who is really determined to develop universal solutions, and for whom the politicization of the process and dirty tricks are more important," the Russian representative said.