By and large, the UN General Assembly has become a tool used by the West to promote its interests, Igor Shatrov, head of the Expert Council of Russia’s Strategic Development Fund, told Sputnik.
“Most of the decisions that are made at the level of the General Assembly proceed from the position that Western countries adhere to,” he noted.
This explains why the Russia-proposed amendment to the Pact for the Future adopted at the opening of the two-day Summit of the Future at UNGA based on “the principle of non-interference in matters within domestic jurisdiction of a state” drew a negative response, he explained.
“The West inherently perceives international politics as interference in the affairs of other states in its own interests,” Shatrov said, which is why the Russian proposal was snubbed.
However, not all countries are ready to toe the West’s line, he added, referring to the 40 or so UN member states that did not express their unequivocal support for the pact.
“Amid the escalating confrontation between the West and Russia, many countries have begun to align themselves with Moscow’s position rather than that of Western states, prompting the emergence of new formats such as BRICS,” he remarked.
The Pact for the Future, like all documents issued by UNGA, is advisory in nature, the pundit noted, unlike the mandatory decisions of the UN Security Council.
The blueprint pledges action towards a multitude of apparently admirable goals, such as the eradication of poverty, building peaceful, inclusive communities, the revival of trust in global institutions, etc. However, it is short on specifics, as “we do not see any scenarios” for how to how to deliver on these goals, Shatrov summed up, adding:
“Therefore, this is simply a document that outlines the situation at the moment, but it does not carry any other content.”
The Pact for the Future pushed through by UNGA on September 22 was branded a “huge defeat for the UN” by Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin.
“From the very outset, those who coordinated the work on the draft included in it only what was dictated to them mainly by Western countries… What happened is a huge defeat for the UN, because the principle of the sovereign equality of states, which is enshrined in the Charter, was cynically sacrificed to one group of countries whose interests had been carefully safeguarded for all these months… Never before have we witnessed such despotism on the UN platform,” Vershinin stated.
Russia's First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy called the pact “a huge blow to the organization as a whole.” The pact is “unbalanced” and contains “very dangerous provisions which will backfire and undermine multilateralism and intergovernmental nature of the UN upheld by the UN Charter,” he posted on X.
Screenshot of X post by First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy.
© Photo : Dpol_un