On September 26, Sergey Lavrov’s programme of participation in the 76th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations ended. In the course of his statement, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation noted that Moscow supported the generally accepted rules of the UN Charter and believed that the desire of individual countries to manage them alone would entail new conflicts and inter-State barriers. Here are the main statements of the Minister.
The “Democracy Summit” proposed by the USA
Sergei Lavrov criticized the idea of convening a “democracy summit” proposed by the United States. In his view, Washington’s exclusive right to elect participants according to their democratic standards would be a step towards dividing the world into “its” and “alien”.
“American development model”
“Recently, US President Joe Biden announced his refusal to use military methods to, as he put it, “redraw other countries”. We expect the United States to take the next step and to abandon not only force but all other methods of imposing its development model”, — the Minister said.
As an example of the policy of double standards, Sergey Lavrov cited the situation of recognition as the State of artificial formation of Kosovo without special referendums. By contrast, he cites the legitimate Crimean referendum of 2014, followed by Western sanctions against Russia.
“Strategic stability”
“With good will, mutually acceptable decisions on the future of arms control are within reach. A responsible approach is also needed in other areas of strategic stability. Since Washington’s withdrawal from the INF Treaty, Russia has unilaterally undertaken not to deploy ground-based medium- and short-range missiles, either in nuclear or non-nuclear weapons, in the regions, where similar American production systems will not be deployed. We are still awaiting the reaction of NATO members to our proposal to declare a similar moratorium, reinforced – I stress this – by mutual verification measures”, — Sergey Lavrov said.
Withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan
According to the Minister, the chaos resulting from the hasty withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan is a clear example of the West’s desire to destroy the “monocentric architecture” of world law and order. The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation called on all countries to learn from this course of events.
According to his statement, Russia is in favour of adapting the UN Security Council to the polycentric world order by including Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Lavrov specified that “in hot spots it is necessary for all external players to understand the cultural and civilizational specificities of the society, not to politicize humanitarian aid, to assist in the formation of broadly representative authorities, including all the major ethno-religious and political forces of the countries concerned”.
Militarization of the Internet and the space threat
“The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned other countries against launching a cyber arms race. In this regard, the Russian Federation advocates the establishment of international information security on the basis of coherent work by the United Nations. “The criterion should not be someone’s “special rules”, but universal arrangements allowing for transparent, factual consideration of any concerns“, — Lavrov said.
#OurRegulationsTheUNCharter
The Russian Foreign Minister concluded his speech by emphasizing that humanity is “in the same boat” and that it is in the common interest to keep it afloat. According to Lavrov, the fulfilment of the main mission of the United Nations is only possible with the coordinated work of all states for the benefit of individual nations and the entire world. The Minister’s final suggestion was the creation of the hashtag #OurRulesTheUNCharter, which would be launched on social media in the official languages of the United Nations.
