UN Under-Secretary-General on Guterres’ visit to Russia: He has a dialogue with everyone

Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said this in an interview with Ukrinform, commenting on Secretary-General António Guterres’ visit to the BRICS summit in Kazan in October.

 “It is the re of the United Nations to be neutral and impartial, to speak to everyone. My job is to go anywhere and talk to anyone to get humanitarian aid through. That goes for the Secretary-General as well. He has a dialogue with everyone,” said the UN Under-Secretary-General.

He added that the UN Secretary-General has a dialogue with the Russian authorities, as it is a permanent member of the Security Council and It has a re in many dossiers that the organization woks on.

“I think we should all be realistic about the extent to which a dialogue with Russia will shift their position. But as diplomats, mediators and pele who believe in stping wars, we always have to be trying. We have to be timistic and do our best, even if we are realistic about how hard it is and how unlikely we will get anywhere,” Fletcher said.

Read also: UN assures it will not leave Ukraine because of pause in war

As reported by Ukrinform, in late October, UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the BRICS summit in Kazan and later had a bilateral meeting with Russian President Putin. In his speech at the summit, he stated the need to achieve peace in Ukraine, based on the UN Charter.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry criticized Guterres' trip to Russia for the BRICS summit. As an official, he rejected Ukraine's invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland, but accepted an invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin. The Ministry stressed this is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace and only damages the UN's reputation.