Baltic countries protest russia’s presidency of UN Security Council: “It is humiliating and dangerous”

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania opposed russia's presidency of the United Nations Security Council in April 2023.

"Ukrinform" writes about this.

The joint statement on behalf of the three countries was read out at the meeting of the UN Security Council on March 30 by Estonia's ambassador to the UN, Rein Tammsaar.

The document states that a country ruled by a war criminal prosecuted by the International Criminal Court cannot preside over a body responsible for world peace and security.

"Isn't it telling that tomorrow, on the anniversary of the Bucha massacre, russia will preside over the Security Council? This is shameful, humiliating, and dangerous for the credibility of this body and its effective functioning," Tammsaar emphasized.

The representative of Estonia stressed that the members of the UN Security Council should oppose russia's attempts to "turn the main venue for international diplomacy into a laughingstock and a platform for disinformation."

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It should be noted that five permanent members of the UN constitute part of the Security Council. These are russia, Great Britain, France, the United States, and China, which have the right to veto. The other ten member countries change on a rotating basis.

The presidency of the UN Security Council is held alternately between Security Council members and changes every month. In March, Mozambique presided; in April, it is the turn of the russian federation.

The UN Charter does not provide for any procedure by which the five permanent members can be expelled from the Security Council.

At the same time, for example, a professor of international law in Cambridge and a former advisor to the US State Department, Thomas Grant, said that it is possible to exclude russia from the UN Security Council. He even presented his instructions.

Earlier, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's Minister for Foreign Affairs, described russia's presidency of the UN Security Council as a "bad joke" due to the ongoing colonial war and its leader being a war criminal sought by the ICC for the kidnapping of children. Moreover, Kuleba advocates for expelling russia from the UN Security Council. Kuleba pointed out that russian representatives unlawfully assumed the USSR's place on the UN Security Council in December 1991 without abiding by the UN Charter's established regulations.