Sergey Lavrov: “Anyone who has been closely following recent developments is aware that threats in Eurasia are significantly up which requires us to make additional efforts”

Photo: MFA

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement at a meeting of the Council of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly.

Moscow, April 20, 2026

Mr Volodin,

Participants of the meeting,

On January 1, 2026, Russia assumed the chairmanship of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Our tenure proceeds under the motto, Collective Security in a Multipolar World: Common Goal, Shared Responsibility.

In collaboration with our allies within the CSTO, we are intensifying efforts to uphold shared approaches to resolving international security issues. Much has already been articulated on this subject today. The foundational documents of the Organisation – and I wish to underscore this with particular emphasis – enshrine the principles of peaceful coexistence among states, the primacy of political and diplomatic methods of resolution, and adherence to the norms of international law, with the United Nations playing a central role.

I consider it of fundamental importance that, in the current period, as the West resorts more frequently and extensively to illegitimate use of force, neocolonial methods of diktat, and outright plunder, the CSTO countries are neither altering nor revising the aforementioned goals of their activities. We will not deviate from the universal norms of international law. On the contrary, we will counter attempts to undermine them and oppose efforts to impose lawlessness in global affairs, whilst upholding the universal norms of international law, above all the sovereign equality of states, as enshrined in the UN Charter. I am convinced that we preserve the moral leadership on the international stage which has always been in demand. I hope that following the relatively swift conclusion of what we are now witnessing, that moral leadership will be needed more than ever.

It is precisely on this basis – including the principle of the sovereign equality of states inscribed in the UN Charter, which the West has never, in any diplomatic, military, or crisis situation since the Organisation’s inception, respected – that we invite our partners to actively participate together in shaping the contours of a future architecture of equal and indivisible security across the Eurasian expanse. We see the CSTO as a structure that could become one of the load-bearing pillars of such a security architecture.

The Collective Security Treaty Organisation has established itself as an authoritative association of allied states whose activities are not directed against anyone, contain no aggressive aspirations, and are built exclusively in the interests of maintaining regional stability and the well-being of its member countries.

The constructive disposition of our Organization is evidenced by the experience we have actively introduced into dialogue with our Western colleagues since the inception of the OSCE. It was the CSTO that advocated dialogue with the North Atlantic Alliance. It was our Organisation that proposed establishing, within the OSCE framework and under that universal Euro-Atlantic umbrella, a working process to build confidence, transparency, and so forth. It was the CSTO that at the time welcomed the decision of the UN Secretary-General to hold regular meetings of the secretaries-general of military and political organisations. NATO representatives and the CSTO participated. Yet even during that period, NATO’s attitude towards the Organisation was supremely arrogant. There was never any question of equality from the leaders of the North Atlantic Alliance and all its members. Therefore, when we reaffirm our openness to international contacts, we must naturally bear in mind the lessons of the very recent past.

All decisions within the CSTO are taken by consensus. This is not merely a figure of speech. It is genuine work aimed at forging a balance of interests, founded upon the principles of mutual respect, neighbourliness, genuine friendship, and mutual assistance. No rule with a rod of iron, such as we observe in NATO, is present in the CSTO. I believe you all can confirm this. This rule with a rod has now migrated to the European Union as well, where an unelected Brussels bureaucracy seeks to demand of the governments elected by the peoples of Europe actions that do not align with the agreed operational norms of that very European Union.

Russia maintains continuity in advancing the principal vectors of our collaboration within the CSTO. We continue our work to implement the initiatives of the preceding chairmanship – that of the Kyrgyz Republic.

As many colleagues have already remarked today, and as Vyacheslav Volodin detailed, our goal is to preserve the truth concerning our common struggle to liberate the world from Nazism and to perpetuate the heroic feat of the Soviet people, who defended the independence of their native land and liberated Europe and the world from the brown plague. April 19 was proclaimed in Russia as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People committed by the Nazis and their accomplices during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.

We must do everything necessary to ensure that our youth understand their history, the history of their forebears, and are raised in a spirit of profound respect both for those who fought at the front and for those who secured Victory on the home front. Our countries made an enormous contribution to achieving these common objectives.

In 2026, the international community will mark the 80th anniversary of the conclusion of the work of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, which condemned a significant portion of the principal Nazi war criminals and legally enshrined the defeat of fascism. Its significance can scarcely be overestimated. The historic verdict not only condemned the criminals of the Third Reich but also outlawed and rendered morally repugnant the very ideology of Nazism.

To our profound regret, this ideology, along with the practices of Nazism, is now being revived. This includes – grievous though it is to note – in Germany, as well as in those countries that willingly joined Hitler’s hordes in the attack on the Soviet Union. Now, once again, there are attempts to unite them under these accursed banners in order to inflict a “strategic defeat” upon our country. This pertains to the Baltic states as well. We observe it in Finland. I need hardly mention Ukraine, which for more than a decade has been moulded into an instrument for waging war against our state. In connection with attempts to resurrect Nazism, I must also mention Britain, which has always been the birthplace of the philosophy of racial superiority. We must, without question, preserve the memory of the victims of the genocide of the Soviet people – the genocide of every people of the Soviet Union. In preserving this memory, we are duty-bound to do everything to ensure that these dates – and each of our countries has many sacred dates – do not become mere formalities.

We are convinced that upholding our common position on the punishment and prohibition of any reverence for those who perpetrated the genocide of all the peoples of the Soviet Union must not be confined to observance from one date to the next; it must be constant, ongoing work. This is being actively pursued by parliament members, our colleagues in the Ministry of Defence, in other security agencies, and by our diplomatic service.

Please convey my deep respect to all my counterparts. I had the chance to see many of them at a meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers, where we reiterated that our respective embassies and consular offices should keep up and further improve coordination in foreign countries, primarily in Europe as well as other countries that were involved in the Second World War in one way or another, and to ensure that this work is firmly grounded in facts. The body of evidence is steadily growing. Our historians and public figures are carrying out extensive research, thereby creating an additional foundation to ensure the success of our diplomatic efforts. We are working to ensure that justice prevails.

We are continuing our course towards expanding our Organisation’s contacts with the Eurasian countries. Security in this geopolitical area and close interaction with integration associations within our shared space matters a lot to us.

Anyone who has been closely following recent developments is aware that threats in Eurasia are significantly up which requires us to make additional efforts. Those who are attempting to dominate the world by unleashing wars, destroying civilians and intimidating entire nations are, without a doubt, creating ever new threats for our countries within our shared space, as well as other countries.

Instability in and around Afghanistan was mentioned today. A gruelling war on terrorism and drug trafficking is going on there, which undoubtedly requires us to pay even more attention to it than we are already paying.

However, developments such as the crisis in the Persian Gulf resulting from the unprovoked aggression of the United Countries and Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the widening war in Lebanon, and the expanding military actions against the Syrian Arab Republic aimed at another attempt to split that country, as well as, of course, a deadlocked situation that is intensifying the tragedy of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank of the Jordan River remain deeply concerning.

If you look at the map, you’ll see that the prospects for establishing a Palestinian state are steadily waning. Official statements from Israel, however, claim that such a state will never be created and that only the State of Israel will exist and, on top of that, do so within expanded borders.

Our region will not remain unaffected. I have just returned from the Antalya Diplomatic Forum. The remarks delivered by President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other speakers, and the questions raised during my remarks, revealed serious concern over the consequences of the Gulf crisis not only for the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, but also for the Caspian region, the South Caucasus and Central Asia. These regions are interconnected, and instability spills over from one region to another.

Without a doubt, those who are making every effort to sustain this chaos seek to primarily deepen divisions within the Islamic world. That much is absolutely clear. Our Organisation, which is largely comprised of our Muslim colleagues, must keep this in mind when they engage in practical projects and programmes.

The developments we are witnessing in the West present an unrelenting build-up of efforts aimed at creating new armies for another attempt to inflict a strategic defeat on the Russian Federation. The Republic of Belarus is mentioned in this context as well. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko recently mentioned this in an interview. They are not bothered by an ongoing crisis in NATO. Increasingly, official voices are being heard in Europe about the need to cobble up a new bloc to include the EU, the UK, Norway, and Ukraine. President Zelensky has made it clear he was ready to lead the new war machine and to get Europe ready for another war against the Russian Federation, as was the case during the First World War, under Napoleon and under Hitler. The forces are coming together. If you consider that the EU leaders describe what Zelensky is doing as upholding European values, it means one and only one thing: they are attempting to unite the European armies under the banners of Nazism, since the Nazi ideology and practices are precisely what Zelensky and his regime are strongly pursuing. That includes bans on the Russian language across all spheres of life, encouraging Nazi gatherings, and outlawing the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

We need to be mindful of such developments in our military planning and elsewhere, because the crises along the perimeter of the CSTO’s area of responsibility must not turn into full-scale hostilities that could harm us. Preventive measures are essential, and we must do everything necessary to strengthen the military component of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. This is our sacred duty.

We must work with our closest neighbours and partners from the CIS and the SCO. The SCO has a substantial programme aimed at strengthening stability and security. Recently, the secretaries-general of the CSTO, the CIS, and the SCO approved a roadmap that provides for, among other things, holding joint conferences on security issues in Central Asia and Afghanistan in Moscow. Further developments will determine which additional security dimensions, including geographical ones, will be needed.

Kyrgyzstan currently holds the SCO chairmanship which provides a good opportunity for ensuring continuity in contacts and promoting cooperation between the CSTO and the SCO. We are certainly interested in expanding interaction with friendly countries, including those with observer or partner status, among them Serbia at the parliamentary level. It is important to maintain and strengthen these ties, as Serbia is also on the frontline and is fighting to defend its national independence and is being directly pressured by Brussels bureaucrats into adopting an anti-Russia stance or even sending troops to the bloc directed against our country that they are threatening to put together.

We support the development of auxiliary consultative mechanisms within the CSTO across key areas of interaction. One proposal is to establish an association of analytical centres of CSTO member countries on matters of international relations and security. Given the circumstances, such a format would fit naturally into our efforts to strengthen all aspects of allied cooperation.

We attach great importance to strengthening the Organisation’s military component. The programme of our chairmanship which was presented by President Putin places emphasis on increasing the combat potential of the CSTO’s collective forces and equipping them with modern and interoperable weapons and military equipment. This work is being carried out in line with current and future challenges considering the experience of modern-day armed conflicts.

We also see that in this area our Western colleagues are attempting to compete by promoting their own products, which are unlikely to be compatible with the principal armaments of the CSTO countries. The goal is not to help but to sow discord and, over time, to embed and amplify differences.

The work we plan to carry out as chair will continue in accordance with the nature of current and future challenges, taking into account the experience of modern-day armed conflicts. President of Russia Vladimir Putin, who chairs the CSTO Collective Security Council, has set tasks to develop the aviation component of collective forces and to improve air defence coordination within the CSTO.

We will pay special attention to the Organisation’s peacekeeping forces, including refining the regulatory framework governing CSTO participation in UN peacekeeping operations. We would like to see this work expedited. Many years ago Kazakhstan put forward an initiative to improve the CSTO peacekeeping efforts, and we strongly supported it. It is important to resolve the procedural issues that have arisen in the course of this work and do so as soon as possible.

We are likewise focusing on strengthening cooperation in international information security. The West is clearly attempting to politicise this area and monopolise the role of the sole objective source of information. Here too, we see considerable potential for expanding cooperation through special services and other competent agencies. Information security is discussed at the UN as well, and we have a stake in enhancing coordination on that platform.

Biological threats are also on the list of our priorities, including the integration of the latest scientific and medical advances to ensure biosafety across the CSTO area. Within the Coordination Council on Biological Security that we have established, we will continue working on an important joint document analysing and forecasting the biological situation in the Organisation’s area of responsibility. I hope this document will contain practical recommendations as well.

We intend to expand the toolset for jointly countering international terrorism and extremism, combatting terrorism financing, money laundering, drug trafficking, transnational organised crime, and illegal migration. Work has begun on a CSTO Anti-Terrorism Strategy to 2030, and we look forward to heads of state approving it this year.

We highly value interparliamentary cooperation. Today marks an important milestone which is the 23rd anniversary of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly. The Assembly conducts important and systematic work to help create a single legal space across the CSTO and to provide legislative support for decisions adopted by the Collective Security Council. The anticipated signing of an agreement by the Parliamentary Assembly will open new opportunities in this area. Expanding the Organisation’s external ties will improve its standing. Experts from foreign ministries are deeply involved in refining this draft.

On November 11, a key event - the CSTO Summit - will take place in Moscow. In conjunction with our colleagues from the diplomatic services present here, we will do everything possible to ensure that substantive and workable documents are prepared for this summit, which will further promote our alliance.

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