Russia waits for agreements on UN Security Council summit’s organizational issues — Lavrov

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. Russia is waiting for agreements on the agenda and organizational issues regarding a summit of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members, which were earlier proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. "We are currently waiting for agreements on the organizational issues and agenda of this event, which we hope will be held in the face-to-face format as soon as the epidemiological situation allows it," Lavrov said speaking at a press conference on the results of Russia’s diplomatic activities in 2021. The Russian foreign minister noted that the joint statement of the leaders of five nuclear powers as of January 3, 2022, would provide for the preparations of the UN Security Council summit. A joint statement by the leaders of Russia, Great Britain, China, the United States, and France — all of them nuclear powers — was on the Kremlin’s website on January 3. The signatories agreed against nuclear war and arms races and opposed the further proliferation of nuclear weapons. Lavrov also reiterated that Russian and US presidents, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden respectively, reached agreements on the issues of the strategic stability and arms race during their talks in Geneva on June 16, 2021. "A very important statement was made [in Geneva] and it confirmed the principle that there can be no winners in the nuclear war and this is why it must never start," the minister said. "I am pleased to note that a similar statement on the inadmissibility of the nuclear war and about obligations of nuclear powers to prevent it was made at the summit talks on January 3." In January 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin came out with an initiative to organize a meeting of the leaders of the United Nations Security Council permanent member nations to discuss global stability and security issues. The idea was supported by all other members of this format — Great Britain, China, the United States, and France. Read more