Kyiv’s allies on Monday slammed Moscow for a UN Security Council meeting chaired by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov about protecting the UN Charter, which Moscow itself contravened by invading Ukraine.
“By organizing this debate Russia is trying to portray itself as a defender of the UN Charter and multilateralism. Nothing can be further from the truth. It’s cynical,” EU Ambassador to the UN Olof Skoog said.
“If Russia cares about effective multilateralism, that is the first way to prove it,” said Skoog, surrounded by representatives from the 27 EU nations.
Photo: AFP
Russia holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council and organized the meeting as one of its “signature” events of its tenure.
In a note to member states laying out the premise for the meeting, Russia denounced the “unipolar world order” that took effect after the end of the Cold War.
It said that “presented a serious challenge to the efficiency and stability of the United Nations system.”
“Today the world is facing another deep-reaching systemic transformation. Namely, natural and rapid decline of unipolar world order and the emergence of a new multipolar system,” the note said.
Before the meeting, Lavrov said the UN system was “enduring a profound crisis,” and accused Western nations, particularly the US, of being responsible.
“It’s not all about Ukraine,” he told reporters. “It’s about how international relations will continue to be shaped through the establishment of a sound consensus on the basis of balance of interests, or through aggressive and volatile advancement of Washington’s hegemony.”
Sitting next to Lavrov during the meeting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “violation” of international law and the UN Charter.
The war “is causing massive suffering and devastation to the country and its people, and adding to the global economic dislocation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Guterres said.
He added that the world faces “unprecedented and interlocking crises” and “the multilateral system is under greater strain than at any time since the creation of the United Nations.”
“Tensions between major powers are at an historic high. So are the risks of conflict, through misadventure or miscalculation,” Guterres added.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield clutched the world body’s charter in her hand and stressed the importance of defending its values.
“Our hypocritical convenor today, Russia, invaded its neighbor in Ukraine and struck at the heart of the UN Charter,” she said.
Looking at Lavrov, Thomas-Greenfield made a direct plea to him to release detained US journalist Evan Gershkovich and detained former US Marine Paul Whelan.
“Using people as pawns is a strategy of weakness,” she said, urging Lavrov to look into the eyes of Whelan’s sister, who was in the gallery of the chamber, and “see her suffering.”
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF WAR: Ursula von der Leyen said that Europe was in Kyiv because ‘it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It’s Europe’s destiny’ A dozen leaders from Europe and Canada yesterday visited Ukraine’s capital to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion in a show of support for Kyiv by some of its most important backers. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the visitors greeted at the railway station by Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha and the president’s chief of staff Andrii Yermak. Von der Leyen wrote on social media that Europe was in Kyiv “because Ukraine is in Europe.” “In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is
RSS