RTThu, 13 Jul 2023 06:40 UTC
© AFP / Paul J. RichardsRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a G8 meeting in Paris in 2011 together with then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top Western diplomats.
Unfriendly countries are creating an existential threat for Moscow, Sergey Lavrov says. Moscow's relationship with the West won't return to the way it was before 2014, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has predicted. The country's focus now is on working towards building a multipolar world together with Asian, Latin American, and African nations, he added.
"After the launch of the military operation [in Ukraine], the US and other NATO and EU states drastically intensified the hybrid war against Russia, which they had started back in 2014," Lavrov said in an interview with Lenta.ru on Wednesday.
"Aggressive steps by unfriendly countries create an existential threat for Russia," he continued, referring to unprecedented economic sanctions imposed on Moscow by the West, and extensive military support provided to Kiev by the US and its allies.
The Russian state will "defend our right to free and sovereign development with all available means," the foreign minister added.
Russia's top diplomat said it was "obvious that there will be no return to the former relations with unfriendly countries," considering what Washington and Brussels have been doing since February 2022.
"If they suddenly decide to abandon their anti-Russian course, then we'll look into what they're talking about and decide on the further line of action based on our own interests," he explained.
Lavrov noted that the countries of the so-called Global East and South, which make up 85% of the world's population, had refused to join the Western sanctions against Russia and instead showed a willingness to intensify cooperation with Moscow in various areas.He said Russian authorities had a clear understanding that the "strengthening of the multipolar world is a reality, but not somebody's whim." That's why the country is working closely with BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and other international organizations to unite non-Western nations.
"The updated Foreign Policy Concept [which was published this March] states that the civilizational mission of Russia as a world power is playing a balancing role in international affairs," Lavrov stated.
This means that - together with its "friends" in Asia, Latin America and Africa - Moscow is going to "contribute to the formation of a more just world order based on the goals and principles of the UN Charter... and, above all, on the principle of the sovereign equality of states," he said.
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NATO suffering delusions of grandeur - Lavrov
© Press Service of the Russian Foreign MinistryRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
The top Russian diplomat has accused the military bloc of attempting to undermine Moscow's relations with Beijing.
The US and its allies are targeting Russia and China because of their strong relationship, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed, citing the final communique from this week's NATO summit in Lithuania.
The NATO document stated that "the deepening strategic partnership between [China] and Russia and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interests."
Commenting on Thursday during a trip to Indonesia, Lavrov said that "apparently, we are not even allowed now to have a relationship [with China], or so they wish." The diplomat noted that the US had previously limited itself to referring to Russia and China as its "rivals."
The NATO statement further justifies Russia's efforts to oppose "modern forms of colonialism" and to advocate international relations based on respect, Lavrov insisted.
"People in NATO are obviously not prepared for [the same approach]. Delusion of grandeur is expressed in all actions of the NATO leadership, as well as member states, frankly speaking. Everybody sees that," the Russian minister claimed.
Lavrov accused the West of attempting to preserve its hegemony and dress it up as a "rules-based order," but predicted that multipolarity would ultimately prevail.
He also alleged that NATO's appetite for spreading its influence globally was causing destabilization outside of the North Atlantic region.
"They already have plans to build up NATO military infrastructure in the [Asia-Pacific] region, including in the nations that were invited to the summit in Vilnius... I mean Australia, New Zealand, Japan, [South] Korea," said the minister.
Canberra violated its own commitment to keeping the Pacific free from nuclear weapons when it agreed to host "elements of infrastructure" related to nuclear arms under the AUKUS arrangement, Lavrov argued.
Tokyo and Seoul "have been signaling that they would not oppose stationing American nuclear weapons or obtaining some of their own," he added.
The Russian foreign minister was speaking in Indonesia after a summit with ASEAN, a regional integration bloc. He claimed the US was pushing for the Southeast Asian organization to be replaced by structures under Washington's control, so that it could undermine China.
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