Relocation Of UN General Assembly's 1st Committee From US Not Agreed Yet - Moscow

The decision to relocate the meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with disarmament and international security issues, from New York to either Vienna or Geneva amid unfriendly visa policies of the United States has not been agreed yet, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2019) The decision to relocate the meeting of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, which deals with disarmament and international security issues, from New York to either Vienna or Geneva amid unfriendly visa policies of the United States has not been agreed yet, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin on Wednesday.

"It is being discussed. There is no decision yet," Vershinin said at a press conference in the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.

When the United States denied visas to several members of the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly's high-level week in September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country might resort to advocating for the relocation of the UN headquarters to ensure that all delegates, designated to represent the interests of their respective countries, have access to the organization's working procedures.

Earlier in October, Russia's Deputy Envoy to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy proposed to relocate the First Committee from New York to either Vienna or Geneva.

Similar proposals have been previously voiced by a number of other countries, including Iran, Libya and others. Located in the Turtle Bay area of Manhattan, the premises of the UN Headquarters are a so-called extraterritorial zone that is governed by the 1947 Headquarters Agreement between the UN and the US. According to Article IX, Section 23 of this document, the headquarters can be relocated should the United Nations decide so.