Red Cross Regional Head Lauds Russia For Pursuing Multifaceted Dialogue At Every 'Angle'

Russia maintains a multifaceted dialogue with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which ranges from political support for humanitarian initiatives in the United Nations, legal and financial assistance to joint work with the organization's regional delegation on the ground, the new ICRC regional head for Russia, Belarus and Moldova told Sputnik in an interview

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2019) Russia maintains a multifaceted dialogue with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which ranges from political support for humanitarian initiatives in the United Nations, legal and financial assistance to joint work with the organization's regional delegation on the ground, the new ICRC regional head for Russia, Belarus and Moldova told Sputnik in an interview.

The ICRC began working in Russia back in 1992 just after the breakout of the Ossetian-Ingush conflict. Though the situation in North Caucasus has since stabilized, the organization is still assisting in mitigating ramifications of these past conflicts.

According to Ikhtiyar Aslanov, who took the post of the head of the ICRC regional delegation earlier this year, the organization closed its offices in North Caucasus back in 2018, with "this change of situation there," and restructured its work in Russia. He, however, noted that "certain humanitarian needs of the past still remain," like issues related to those who went missing during those conflicts.

Aslanov noted that the current engagement with Russia did not confine itself to just "one angle," covering both issues in Russia and those around the world where Moscow could play a humanitarian role.

"One area that we are very closely working with Russia and Russian authorities and think tanks is the development of international humanitarian law. These are Geneva conventions, how they are implemented, who they are integrated in the international legislation and what are the areas [where] we can work together ... Another part of the area is dialogue what we call 'humanitarian dialogue,' 'humanitarian diplomacy' where together with Russia we look at humanitarian context where Russia has influence like humanitarian situation in Syria ... like situation in Ukraine," he said.

In general, the ICRC regional head noted that any country could provide the organization with "multifaceted" support.

"It can be political like in terms of discussing and supporting ICRC in humanitarian issues like in Security Council discussions or other forums, it can be tactical pragmatic on the ground, it can be legal and it can be financial. And our engagement with Russia is touching nearly all of them," Aslanov said.

In addition, Russia is "financially supporting ICRC," with the possibility of boosting this assistance currently under discussion, according to the regional head.