Russian diplomat, British envoy discuss idea to hold summit of UNSC permanent members

TASS: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin has met with British Ambassador to Moscow Deborah Bronnert to discuss Moscow’s initiative to hold a summit of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Russia, France, the United States, the United Kingdom and China), the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

"The parties exchanged views on pressing global and regional issues, including Russia’s initiative to hold a summit of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and cooperation on climate change issues," the statement reads.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the meeting was initiated by the United Kingdom.

While addressing the World Holocaust Forum in Israel on January 23, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a summit of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Early this Month, US President Donald Trump confirmed his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to hold the summit of UN Security Council five permanent members, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

French president Emmanuel Macron and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping have also supported the initiatives of the summit. 

And quite recently, President Trump confirmed his consent and endorsement of this proposal," the Russian foreign minister commented.

US President Trump earlier said at a press conference, responding to a question from TASS, that a summit of the UN Security Council five permanent members (Great Britain, China, Russia, the United States and France) could be held in New York to discuss primarily arms control issues.

Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department of International Organizations Pyotr Ilyichev earlier told journalists that such a summit could take place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s jubilee session in New York in September but there are no specific accords on that score yet.