This was stated by Boris Titov, Special Representative of the President of Russia for Relations with International Organizations to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, during a meeting with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed in New York, held on the sidelines of the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
“We welcome the fact that the final document of the Fourth UN International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville endorsed support for developing countries in mobilizing domestic resources, emphasized the strengthening of national tax systems, and promoted international cooperation in taxation within the framework of the UN Convention,” Titov noted. “At the same time, we must remain realistic: overcoming the inertia and reluctance of some major players to relinquish control over the international financial system will be an extremely difficult task.”
“Russia recognizes the important role of UN resident coordinators in various countries and the potential of this system,” the Special Representative continued. “We consistently advocate that resident coordinators focus on the key tasks of improving the efficiency of aid delivery to developing countries. It is therefore unacceptable for us that there are no Russian citizens among the 130 resident coordinators. We are interested in increasing the number of Russian specialists in these positions and in the resident coordinator system as a whole. We count on the support of UN leadership in achieving this goal.”
Titov also recalled the recently adopted UN General Assembly resolution initiated by Russia, which advances the reform launched by Secretary-General António Guterres under the name “UN 2.0 Initiative.” “Any proposals related to budget cuts or agency mergers must be thoroughly examined and based on solid evidence,” he concluded. “We must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
