The president of the Economic and Social Council (CES), Francisco Assis, left, this Tuesday, in Athens, the general assembly of the international association, suspending the Portuguese participation while Russia remains in the presidency of the organization.
The representatives of the ESCs of Spain and France took the same position and also suspended their participation in AICESIS — International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions, until Russia leaves the presidency of the association, which should take place within a year and a half.
“Today’s meeting was busy. […]with France, Spain and Portugal demanding the Russian resignation, since they consider it unacceptable that the Russian counterpart is a defender of Russian propaganda about the war in Ukraine,” Francisco Assis told the Lusa news agency, after leaving the meeting in Athens.
Although only the three countries accepted their demand with interventions at the meeting and with the abandonment of it, Russia’s departure from the presidency of AICESIS was demanded in a document signed by 12 European countries.
“We fulfilled our role and symbolically suspended our participation, I think the other European signatory countries will take the same positionalso suspending their participation,” said Francisco Assis.
According to the president of the CES, the European countries were in the minority at the meeting, since most of the countries assumed a “great silence” regarding the war in Ukraine and China considered that it is a conflict between the two parties.
“But it’s not like that, because Ukraine was invaded and is being attacked and that’s where people are dying,” he said.
Francisco Asís explained that two-thirds of the votes were needed for the Russian presidency to be removed, but the 12 European signatories were a minority compared to the total of 78 participants in the assembly.
In March, the Portuguese ESC and its counterparts in the European Union suspended all activities within the scope of the International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions until the holding of the general assembly, with the aim of removing the presidency of the association to the Russian counterpart. , the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.
At the height, the The European ESCs considered it unacceptable that the Russian organization reproduced the official speech of the Russian Federationto blame Ukraine for the war and condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The next AICESIS General Assembly will be held in Belgrade and the next one in Russia.
The next presidency of AICESIS, which is always rotating, will be assigned to a Western European country.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 to “demilitarize and denazify” the neighboring country, accusing kyiv of alleged genocide of the Russian-speaking populations in the Donbass region (east).
Initially, the offensive hit the country’s main cities, including kyiv, but resistance from Ukrainian forces prompted Russia to revise its ambitions and focus on Donbass, where the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk are located.
Peace talks, which began four days after the invasion, have stalled for weeks with each side blaming the other for the suspension.
The Russian invasion was condemned by the international community in general.
The EU and countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan have enacted successive sanctions packages against Russian interests and have supplied weapons to Ukraine.
Source: Observadora
