UN, 16 APR – news, Alan Bukaty. The UN can’t predict whether it will expand the use of video conferencing technology in the organization, when an epidemic of coronavirus pass, the number of diplomats do not see alternatives to face communication.
the headquarters of the UN located in new York, which is located in the centre of the epidemic of coronavirus in the United States. For about a month, UN staff and representatives of the countries members of the organization work remotely. All conferences and events with a massive participation of delegates was postponed to a later date. Delayed even the most important event in the field of disarmament, the Review conference of the Treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT), which was held in new York from 27 April to 22 may. Meetings UN security Council meetings, press briefings are held in the videoconference mode. However, as practice shows, the technology is imperfect, at times giving failures.
however, he noted that it is not ready to predict whether to increase the use of videoconferencing in the structures of the UN after the pandemic coronavirus will disappear.
“Videophone System that we use now is improved, but still does not give the result that we would need,” he said.
the representatives of the various missions at the UN do not consider that the virtual format will ever replace “live diplomacy”.
“Have video conferencing, of course, is the role she was. But I think everyone is happy to be back in full-time format – diplomacy still requires personal communication and in some cases greater privacy,” said RIA Novosti first zampolpreda of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy.
a Source in the UN security Council from another mission noted that, to talk about the prospects of transition to the holding of summits between the leaders or Ministers of States in an online format yet.
Speaking about prospects of the week high-level UN General Assembly in September, another spokesman at the UN said that while talk about the translation of the event in the video conference is not.
He also noted that the translation of the meetings of the security Council in a videoconference, the duration of the speeches of the representatives of States, declined slightly. “This common sense than rules. Theoretically everything is the same, and in fact, I try to speak no longer than 3-5 minutes,” he said, explaining that the video is unstable, sometimes “missing” words, or “speaker just falls out”.
According to him, is also hard to hear and perceive a video a long speech.
As pointed out by another source in the UN security Council, “diplomacy should be possible to conduct face-to-face.” According to him, many issues are resolved on the fields of major events on the sidelines. “Discussions on the draft resolutions also often conducted in a narrow circle,” he added.
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