In April, Russia holds the presidency of the UN Security Council. Photo: AP / NTB
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1. apr. 2023 14:38 – Updated Apr 1 2023 15:13
Russia took over the rotating chairmanship of the UN Security Council on Saturday. Ukraine’s foreign minister calls it a bad joke.
– That Russia takes over the chairmanship of the UN Security Council on 1 April is a bad joke, writes Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Twitter.
– Russia has usurped its seat, they are waging a colonial war and their leader is a war criminal who is wanted by the ICC for kidnapping children, he writes, referring to President Vladimir Putin.
– Appears completely absurd
Ole Wæver, who is professor of international politics at the University of Copenhagen, also thinks that the Russian chairmanship is sensational.
– It appears completely absurd that the aggressor in a war should sit at the end of the table and lead meetings in the organization that is supposed to look after world peace, he says.
Gets no consequences for the war
Wæver does not believe that the Russian chairmanship will have any consequences for the war in Ukraine.
– But it means something for the discussion about whether the UN is completely hopeless, he says.
– We should still take the UN seriously, but right now they appear to be a bad joke or rather an April Fool’s joke, says Wæver.
The chairmanship of the UN Security Council rotates among the 15 member states, who hold it for one month at a time. Russia has it in April.
