MOSCOW, November 20 (Sputnik) – UNESCO's Moscow office will close in September next year as its mission has been accomplished, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday.
"[UNESCO's] Moscow bureau has completed its mission and will halt their activities in Moscow in September of next year according to a mutual agreement," Lukashevich said during a briefing.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia's UNESCO envoy Eleonora Mitrofanova told the Sputnik news agency that the organization decided to close its office in Moscow.
She noted that the decision to gradually scale down the presence of UN project support offices in Russia was withdrawn in the 2000s when Russia itself became a donor to UN programs and a net contributor.
UNESCO was established on November 16, 1945. Its mission is to contribute to global peace and security by promoting cooperation among nations worldwide through education, science and culture, as well as to foster and maintain intellectual solidarity. The organization currently has 195 members. The UNESCO bureau in Moscow was established in 1989.
