Russia’s MFA puts forward its requirements for a future UN chief

MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. A senior Russian diplomat presented a list of requirements as defined by Russia, including rejection of double standards, equidistance of their stance, and efforts toward ensuring a sane interstate dialogue, for a candidate to the post of UN Secretary-General. "The main challenge for a future UN Secretary-General will be to ensure conditions for a sane interstate dialogue, and act as a mediator, without assuming the role of a judge or a supreme arbiter which is outside their mandate," Kirill Logvinov, director of the Department of International Organizations at the Russian Foreign Ministry, noted in a column for TASS. "Everybody at the [global] organization must commit themselves to adhering to the objectives and principles of the founding document in their entirety and interconnection and without any hierarchy," Logvnov believes. He dismissed comments such as 'Greenland is one thing and Crimea is different' as hardly admissible. "In any conflict situation, the UN chief should hold an equidistant position, use neutral terminology, focus on mandatory or consensus decisions, and refrain from making legally void conclusions," the Russian diplomat emphasized. This, he argued, would exclude the use of double standards which "unfortunately manifest themselves at all levels across the global organization and are particularly visible in the context of the situation in Gaza and Ukraine," he lamented.