Russia on Friday to Formally Call for Moving UN 1st Committee to Geneva or Vienna

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - Russia will submit an official document to propose relocating the United Nations General Assembly First Committee from New York to Geneva or Vienna after diplomats were denied US visas, Acting Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Office at Geneva Andrey Belousov said.

"Today we intend to submit for consideration at the First Committee one of our documents which envisages a procedural decision about the relocation of the First Committee from New York to another alternative platform within the UN system - either Vienna or Geneva,” Belousov said. “We will be proposing this document as an official decision of the First Committee."

The United States failed to issue visas to allow Russian diplomats to participate in this year's meetings of the UN General Assembly First Committee, which deals with disarmament and international security matters.

Earlier this week, Russia's Deputy Permanent UN Representative Gennady Kuzmin said that the UNGA sixth committee had joined the first committee in suspending its work over visa-related problems faced by diplomats. He added that he expects the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss the visa problem with the US as the host country of the UN headquarters.