MOSCOW: The Biden administration’s desire to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia will certainly fail, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey La...
MOSCOW: The Biden administration’s desire to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia will certainly fail, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, addressing the 10th Primakov Readings international forum on Wednesday.
The Russian foreign minister also said that Moscow was seeking to prevent the West from posing a threat to its security.
TASS has gathered key statements by Russia’s top diplomat.
On futility of US ambitions to achieve global dominance
The desire of individual countries to ensure military-political dominance ended in tragic consequences for those nations and their patrons in the past, Lavrov recounted.
The dollar has lost its reputation globally, and this was highlighted by former US President Donald Trump in one of his recent speeches, he said.
Statements by US officials saying that certain resolutions of the United Nations Security Council are not obligatory may "boomerang" and come back to haunt them, Lavrov warned.
On Ukraine conflict
Also, Lavrov blasted Western claims that restoring Ukraine within the 1991 borders would stop the conflict, calling such a notion ridiculous.
Meanwhile, the West is trying to persuade "certain Arab countries" to host another conference on Ukraine, Lavrov said.
However, participants in any future peace conferences must take full account of the UN Charter, he added.
On security threats
Russia’s top diplomat maintained the ambitions of the Biden administration were nothing new, as he referred to ideas to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia which he said were knowingly doomed to failure or the desire to contain Moscow, Beijing and Iran simultaneously which he dismissed as "naive."
According to Lavrov, the only thing Russia really wants is "to stem threats to our security from the West."
Russia is open to dialogue with Europe based on the recognition of new territorial realities enshrined in the country’s constitution.
On multipolarity and fight against neocolonialism
While each era of multipolarity is unique, Lavrov said he could see the fundamental difference between the current period and the previous ones in that it is worldwide, with non-European, non-Western centers of power and development being available.
Russia’s neighbors in western Eurasia "could become a lynchpin of the evolving multipolar world order as soon as they come to their senses and realize that the policy course being dictated by Washington is a dead end and runs counter to their own interests," he argued.
Russia and its allies are for putting an end to decolonization as they promote a new strategic initiative seeking to "free developing countries from recent signs of neocolonialism."
On Russia’s troika with India, China
Russia has plans to convene meetings with India and China again, Lavrov said: "It [the Russia-India-China (RIC) troika] does not convene often, but that’s not our fault."
Russia and China will take any and all steps to ensure their continued growth, despite US counteraction, Lavrov insisted.
Everybody will benefit if this "troika" makes common cause toward aligning their positions, while the West has been making every effort to undermine the process, he maintained.
On the Middle East
Russia expects Israel to listen to "the voice of the majority countries" on the situation in Gaza, Lavrov said.
The Russian foreign minister decried the "terrible words" uttered by an Israeli official that there are no civilians in Gaza and that all people there are terrorists starting from three years of age.
Lavrov said he saw the risk of violence spreading to Lebanon as he called on the world to realize how disastrous Israel’s steps in the Middle East conflict are.
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