capitol hill
© Getty Images/WOWstockfootage
New centers of global economic growth have emerged to rival the West, and are seizing opportunities to cooperate and strengthen ties, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RT on Wednesday.

Lavrov named China, India, Iran, the Gulf countries, and groups such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) as among the growing economic powers.

"The West has been calling the shots in the world for over five centuries. And this era is over. It will take time for this era to be replaced by multipolarity, which has already started to take shape," the Russian diplomat stated.

Lavrov cited the suggestion by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who said CELAC should "really think about getting rid of total dependence on the US dollar and think about their own currency."

Lula has also suggested an alternative payment platform for the BRICS group of nations, Lavrov noted. The Russian diplomat claimed that these ideas are a response to the way the US is "abusing the role of the dollar with unilateral sanctions, just canceling overnight all the principles they were basing their model of globalization [on], and inviting everyone to join."

Lavrov argued that the same had happened at the World Trade Organization as soon as China gained more clout in global trade and investment. "As China was winning over the United States on American-made turf, immediately the WTO dispute resolution organ was immobilized," he said.

The Russian diplomat claimed that Washington invents rules which it insists everyone else must follow, as long these regulations serve US interests. As soon as other nations become more efficient than the US itself, the rules are changed, Lavrov said.

"This era is coming to an end because of these new world centers of economic, military, political power, and influence," he stated, adding that the process of shaping a new world order would take time.