NEW YORK (UN). Oct 16 (Interfax) - Russia supports the call for launching an arbitral procedure between UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the United States as the country hosting the United Nations Headquarters over the non-issuance of visas to some members of delegations to the UN General Assembly session, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gennady Kuzmin said.
"Some delegations called for activating the mechanism envisaged by Section 21 of the United Nations Headquarters Agreement as a possible way to resolve the issue, and we obviously support their initiative," Kuzmin told Russian journalists after a meeting of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country.
He noted that the arbitral procedure fully depended on the UN Secretariat.
"We, member states, can do nothing but suggest and insist that this procedure take place, but the Secretary General has the final say," Kuzmin said.
This is the first time that the call for effective measures "has been made so loud and clear," he said.
Kuzmin added that he had requested Under Secretary General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel Miguel de Serpa Soares to publish the Guterres statement which he read out at the Committee meeting.