UNESCO meet in Russia on world heritage postponed indefinitely

A meeting of the UN cultural agency's World Heritage Committee which Russia was to host in June has been postponed indefinitely, a source said Thursday, after weeks of intense diplomatic wrangling prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian ambassador to UNESCO had proposed postponing the meeting, set to take place in the city of Kazan, and its indefinite deferral has now been formally agreed, a senior UNESCO source told AFP, asking not to be named.

The ambassador, as the current president of the World Heritage Committee, had made the proposal in a letter to fellow committee member states and it was formalised as no objections were forthcoming, the source added.

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The meeting is notably tasked each year with deciding which sites and monuments will be given the organisation's coveted World Heritage status -- and which could be stripped of the label if countries have fallen short in looking after them.

The meeting from June 19-30 was one of the few international events that Russia was still scheduled to host after President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

But a coalition of mainly Western nations -- led by the UK -- had launched a campaign urging the current committee members not to let Russia host the event.

The issue became particularly controversial as UNESCO has made clear the invasion has caused damage to almost 100 cultural sites in Ukraine.

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The decision is taken not by UNESCO's secretariat but by member states currently on the committee who currently including India, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Italy and Thailand.

The letter, signed by Russia's ambassador to UNESCO and seen by AFP, makes no mention of any alternative date for the session.

"This consensus makes it possible to approach things calmly and to avoid that world heritage, which is normally a cause for harmony, does not find itself caught up in a war," said one diplomat at the Paris-based cultural agency, who asked not to be named.

The UK and its allies had earlier this month called for a different solution, urging that the committee meeting take place, but not in Russia or under a Russian presidency.

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A year's delay is possible and has a precedent after the 2020 session was postponed to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was decided in July 2021 to award the meeting to Kazan, the cultural centre of Russia's Turkic Tatar minority that has long billed itself as a meeting point between different cultures and religions.

British Culture Minister Nadine Dorries said in March that it was "inconceivable" that Russia should host the meeting and that Britain would not attend if it did.

Ukraine's Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko echoed her call, saying Russia's goal is to "destroy Ukraine" and suggesting the session should be moved to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

On April 8, 46 states led by Britain wrote a letter to all members of the World Heritage Committee saying they "would not attend a meeting of the Committee either in Russia or under the Russian presidency."

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