The UN Security Council will not officially meet with Tikhanovskaya
The announced participation of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania and lost the elections, but declared herself the winner of the presidential candidate of Belarus, in a meeting of the UN Security Council is a political and propaganda action and interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country.
Official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova stated this at a briefing, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Thus, commenting on the question of Tikhanovskaya’s participation in the UN Security Council meeting on September 4, Zakharova noted that the initiative to hold this event belongs to Estonia.
“Information about Tikhanovskaya’s participation in it is indeed circulating. However, we do not yet have official confirmation. At the same time, we would like to emphasize that in any case we are not talking about convening an official meeting of the UN Security Council. On September 4, it is possible to hold only an informal meeting of UN Security Council members according to the so-called Arria formula. Any member of the Council has the right to organize such a discussion; this does not require the consent of the majority of its members,” the Foreign Ministry representative clarified.
“This format was initially conceived as an additional tool to increase the Council’s awareness of issues on its agenda. However, then many members of the UN Security Council began to abuse it. Moreover, most often this is the sin of Western partners, who seek to “pull” representatives of civil society, including those who are not always constructively minded, into communication with the Council.
In addition, Western colleagues often use “Arria formula” meetings for political and propaganda purposes, to draw attention to issues on which there are serious differences between Council members. The meeting on Belarus initiated by the Estonians is an example of such counterproductive practice,” Zakharova explained.
According to her, the post-election situation in Belarus does not pose any threat to international peace and security, and therefore its indirect introduction into the UN Security Council, using workarounds in the form of a meeting according to the “Arria formula”, should be regarded as gross interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state:
“Any assistance to Minsk from the UN can be provided exclusively at the request of the official authorities.”
“From the practice of recent years, it becomes obvious that the use of the “Arria formula” is necessary to give some status to issues that do not fit into the UN Security Council agenda. This is part of the information campaign that is being waged against Belarus today,” Zakharova concluded.
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