Lithuania has blasted Antonio Guterres for attending the BRICS Summit in Russia
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was wrong in choosing to attend the BRICS summit in Russia this week, having skipped Ukraine’s “peace conference” last summer, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has claimed – suggesting that Guterres has lost his credibility and should consider resigning. The Baltic country’s Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte condemned the trip as “pathetic” and “incomprehensible.”
Guterres traveled to the three-day event in Kazan, where high-level delegations from 36 nations were in attendance. His office emphasized that the meeting represented nearly half of the world’s population and was thus “of great importance” for the organization’s work.
The Swiss-hosted Ukrainian gathering, which centered around Vladimir Zelensky’s so-called “peace formula,” took place in June and did not include Russia. Although the UN chief turned down an invitation to attend, the organization was represented “at the appropriate level,” according to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, as cited by Yahoo News.
Commenting on the UN Secretary-General’s participation in the BRICS conference on Friday, Landsbergis argued that Guterres is “no longer accepted as an honest broker” regarding conflict resolution between Russia and Ukraine.
If he decides to resign, we certainly would not discourage him.
“Guterres must admit he was wrong and take responsibility—for deciding not to attend the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland and for going to see the wanted war criminal Putin and groveling with both him and his accomplice Lukashenko,” the foreign minister said, as quoted by local media.
If @antonioguterres decides to resign, Lithuania won't try to talk him out of it.
— Gabrielius Landsbergis🇱🇹 (@GLandsbergis) October 25, 2024
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte also expressed her disapproval, criticizing the UN chief for shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and embracing Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during the summit.
“Pathetic. There are people in international organizations – and not only in international organizations – who think they can talk to everyone, here and there,” she told reporters, adding that Guterres’ “behavior is incomprehensible, to say the least.”
Guterres, who had not visited Russia in over two years prior to his trip to Kazan, stressed the importance of participating in “the outreach session of the Summit of BRICS that represents nearly half of the world’s population.” During his address on the final day of the event, he urged BRICS members to act as a “global family” in pursuit of common goals and called for a “just peace” in Ukraine, as well as an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon.
During the conference, he held several bilateral meetings with heads of state and discussed the crises in Ukraine and the Middle East in a closed-door meeting with President Putin.
