The display of Kosovo’s flag caused the abrupt disruption of a UN Security Council virtual meeting on Kosovo.
First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, called on the chair of the session to order Kosovo’s foreign affairs minister, Donika Gërvalla, to hide her country’s flag.
“We are not against the presence of Kosovo’s representatives, nevertheless I want to share the fact that Ms. Donika Gërvalla is sitting in front of the flag of Kosovo. Kosovo is not recognized as an independent state, therefore we request that in order to proceed with the presentation she either changes the background or removes the flag”, said the Russian diplomat.
After these comments, the representative of the United Kingdom came to Kosovo’s defense and said that he does not “see any reason” why the foreign affairs minister should “change the background”.
“This is not an official meeting and we don’t see any reason why minister Gërvalla should change the background in order to proceed with the presentation”.
The President of the UN Security Council suspended the online meeting on Kosovo to carry on consultation behind closed doors as per Russia’s request.
After the suspension of the meeting, the Security Council decided to proceed with the session on Kosovo turning down Russia’s request to remove the flag of Kosovo.
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