РУССКИЙ
11:35 11.09.2024 •
Photo: MFA
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions during a news conference following the 7th Russia-GCC Ministerial Meeting for Strategic Dialogue, Riyadh, September 9, 2024:
- The 7th Russia-GCC Ministerial Meeting for Strategic Dialogue has just ended.
Just like during the previous meeting, we had a candid, useful and result-oriented discussion. We reviewed the status of implementation of the 2023-2028 Joint Action Plan which was approved at the last meeting of the Strategic Dialogue in Moscow in July 2023.
We discussed prospects for Russia’s cooperation with the countries of the region in the economy, investment, cultural ties and information exchanges. We focused specifically on the international situation, primarily, the situation in the Middle East, with a focus on the tragedy unfolding in the Palestinian territories, namely, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank of the Jordan River. We share a common stance on the importance of urgently putting an end to violence, settling humanitarian issues and starting serious practical work to implement UN resolutions on creating a Palestinian state that will coexist with Israel in peace and security.
We covered other regional issues, including the Syria settlement, the situation in Yemen, the Red Sea, Libya, and a number of other issues.
We underscored our appreciation for the balanced position adopted by all GCC countries on the Ukraine crisis. Many of them, including Saudi Arabia, are providing assistance in resolving humanitarian issues not only in the context of what is happening in Ukraine, but in a broader context as well. I’m referring to our relations with the United States and Europe and the recent exchange of prisoners which took place with the direct involvement of the Saudi leaders.
Today, we had a series of bilateral meetings with foreign ministers in Saudi Arabia, including our counterparts from India and Brazil, Secretary General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi, and Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Hissein Taha.
At the end of the working day, our delegation was received by Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, with whom we had an extended discussion covering all key areas of our joint work in pursuance of the agreements reached between the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the Russian Federation, including during the one-on-one meeting between President Vladimir Putin and King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud on December 6, 2023, when our leader was here on a state visit.
In addition to the bilateral agenda, we discussed current international issues and reaffirmed our commitment to the objective process of forming a new multipolar world order without hegemons or dictators, where the key principle of the UN Charter – the sovereign equality of all states - will be respected.
Question: I would like to read out a note of acknowledgement from our chief, Margarita Simonyan: “On behalf of the entire RT staff, allow me to express appreciation to the Foreign Ministry of Russia and the General Consulates in New York and Dubai for their help in bringing back home our colleague, who was persecuted by the FBI.”
Moscow has repeatedly said that there could be no question of talks [with Ukraine] after their joy ride in the Kursk Region. Has anything changed in recent days, given comments in this regard by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Zelensky?
Sergey Lavrov: With regard to the terrorist invasion to the Kursk Region by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the continuing terrorist attacks on facilities in other border regions, including Belgorod, I would like to draw your attention to what President of Russia Vladimir Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum on September 5, 2024, when he described the liberation of the Kursk Region and the entire territory of the Russian Federation, where Ukrainian neo-Nazis have gone on the rampage, as a sacred duty of the Russian Armed Forces.
As for various [peace] “initiatives,” one of these that has been put forward by Vladimir Zelensky is well known and sets one’s teeth on edge. It is an ultimatum pure and simple. The fact that the West sticks to it means just one thing: they do not want to make honest agreements and seek to have Russia come closer to a situation, where they will be able to declare that we have suffered a “strategic defeat” on the battlefield. They want to weaken their rivals. So, we have never taken the “Zelensky formula” seriously and only marvelled that there are still people ready to buy it. Of course, this happens under the West’s pressure.
The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said it was high time to start talking. The German press and other media are hinting that the territorial issue will have to be solved based on the realities existing on the ground. But territories are neither here nor there. We just wanted the people, who are an inalienable part of the Russian world and the Russian culture, language, history, and religion, to be treated as human beings as required under international law, numerous conventions on human rights and minority rights, and primarily the UN Charter.
The numerous ideas floating around the “Zelensky formula” usually start with the words that it is necessary to stop military operations and obey international law, meaning steps to ensure Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
International law is not only about this. Territorial integrity is guaranteed to states whose governments represent the entire population living in this or that territory. This is a resolution passed unanimously by the UN General Assembly. There is no need even to argue that the neo-Nazis in Kiev represented no one in eastern Ukraine, Novorossiya, and Crimea after the [2014] coup.
The main thing is that the UN Charter urges everyone to respect the rights of any person regardless of their race, sex, language, or religion. This is the root of the conflict in Ukraine. The rights of people adhering to Russian culture have been wiped out after the coup. Currently, the Russian language is outlawed in all spheres, including education, media, art, culture, and even everyday life. In addition, the Rada has approved a bill (and Zelensky signed it into law) that actually bans the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Let me stress that none of the initiatives, including those put forward out of best intentions by our good colleagues and partners, address the rights of Russian speakers in areas that Zelensky regards as his own.
Today, I discussed this topic with my counterparts from Brazil and India, because they display a certain concerned approach, one that we understand, to facilitating crisis resolution. I drew their attention to the fact that this was the key problem. People were branded as terrorists solely because they refused to accept the coup and obey the coup-makers, who declared right away that their goal was to wipe out all things Russian and banish Russians from Crimea, among other areas.
We are urging our colleagues to focus on this. We discuss this with our Chinese friends, too. No success will be achieved unless we get to the root of this problem. In this context, we appreciate the global security initiative announced by PRC President Xi Jinping, which says that it is necessary to start analysing any conflict from its prime causes. This refers fully to the Ukraine crisis. The prime causes will go for good if they are laid bare and condemned.
Question: Media reports emerged a few months ago saying that Saudi Arabia could become a venue for a peace conference on Ukraine (an actual peace conference, whenever it takes place). Is Moscow considering this option? Has it been discussed today? You have mentioned statements by the Russian President. Do they imply that a ceasefire is currently “not on the agenda,” or any similar conferences are “not on the agenda” either?
Sergey Lavrov: You should understand that it is not about the meeting location and participants, but about issues to be discussed. Meeting to talk about calls for a ceasefire and then territorial exchanges simply doesn’t cut it. Once again, the problem is not about territories but people’s rights, which have been flouted – and all of the political initiatives floating around fail to mention them.
As soon as we see the determination to protect human rights, a policy that the West always boasts about when addressing any issue (except this particular one), I am confident we will easily agree on the location and time of the meeting. But first we need to understand what exactly we are going to discuss.
We are protecting people. Everyone who expresses interest, one way or another, in facilitating a settlement should be aware of it and to make it their core activity.
Question: As to the developments around the Palestinian-Israeli and Ukrainian conflicts, we hear more and more opinions regarding the failure of the existing system of international security. Do you see any options to create a new system? What should it be like? Could such structure as BRICS play a major role in it?
Sergey Lavrov: All the principles required for ensuring strong international security are documented in the UN Charter. But the problem is that it is not being implemented – and most particularly, by our Western colleagues, who have chosen to have a whip hand over all multilateral structures, making them their tools.
This is achieved mostly through the ‘privatisation’ of international secretariats. Just as they privatised the OSCE, they are now making attempts to do so with the UN Secretariat, and with certain success: NATO representatives have now taken all senior positions in the UN that are directly related to the organisation’s activities in peace, security, peacekeeping, information policy, and security of international structures around the globe.
They present information to UN bodies, Security Council, General Assembly and other structures in a biased manner beneficial to the West. On several occasions, we have officially stated that efforts should be taken to fundamentally revise the principles and criteria for the Secretariat formation, with major role played by fair geographical representation. So far, Western countries have been strongly opposed to this – which is unsurprising as they are doing it solely in pursue of their own selfish interests.
Amidst all of this, the United Nations remains the most comprehensive platform for countries to put forward initiatives, give assessment of certain events, and achieve a balance of interests, an organisation for them to achieve a balance of interests, according to its founders’ initial idea. But the West is not willing to seek a balance of interests and resorts to various tricks in order to impose its unilateral approaches on the Secretariat, with abuse of influence.
In this situation, we are observing similar developments in the Bretton Woods Institutions, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and the World Trade Organisation.
The US-led West is doing everything possible to prevent the real influence of the Global South and East on the global economy, trade, and logistics from being reflected in the voting patterns.
A reform to address this imbalance is long overdue, but it is yet to take place. The West is dismantling the system of globalisation it used to promote after the early 1990s, a system based on the principles of free market, fair competition, presumption of innocence, and much else. All these principles were quickly abandoned and weaponised. The dollar has also been weaponised to punish recalcitrants. Russia is one of the countries the US wants to contain by using these illegal methods. What we are witnessing right now is the process of de-globalisation.
Everyone is aware that any country can become the next target, if some official in Washington dislikes this or that aspect of its behaviour. There are already numerous examples of this. China, for instance, is being punished because technologically it is already ahead of the West and can produce more competitive goods than Western manufacturers. In response, 100-percent prohibitive tariffs and other measures are introduced.
In this context, regional integration processes are becoming increasingly important. For Russia, this implies Eurasian integration through the EAEU and SCO that maintain close cooperation with ASEAN.
At today’s meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council, we discussed this Eurasia-based organisation’s promising potential for promoting the continent-wide processes and contributing to what President Vladimir Putin referred to as the Greater Eurasian Partnership. This will provide the material basis for creating a security architecture open to all countries across the Eurasian continent but not forming part of the Euro-Atlantic equation imposed by the US within the framework of NATO and the OSCE. Now the European Union became part of the North Atlantic security model by signing an agreement with NATO in 2023 whereby it sealed its complete submission to the alliance.
We want the nations of the Eurasian continent – the largest, fastest-growing, and most resource-rich part of the world – to decide their fate on their own. President Vladimir Putin repeatedly said as much, emphasising that the door was not shut on the western part of Eurasia either. However, they must realise that their prospective engagement with other participants in the process in Eurasia should be equal and honest and devoid of forbidden tricks.
Similar processes take place in other regions around the world. The African Union is also seeking to promote its identity, planning for a future where Africa’s vast resources are not exported for processing in the West and create value added in Africa itself.
In Latin America, particularly with the election of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, there is also a growing focus on integration and a renewed drive to reinforce regional identity, especially within the framework of CELAC.
All of that inevitably influences the global landscape/, as reflected primarily in the growing interest in BRICS, which has doubled its membership from five to ten countries. The organisation has received more than 30 applications for membership or special relations. This process is the main motive force shaping a multipolar international order.
I want to emphasise once again that we are not shutting the door on contacts with the West. This is what the UN is all about. But they ought to behave decently and refrain from using its rostrum for making accusations without end or false assertions. They should better look for a balance of interests.
A good example in this sense is the G20 that includes both the G7 and BRICS countries, along with their opinion allies. The Group is almost evenly split, with about ten members promoting a West-oriented “line” and the other ten sharing the BRICS philosophy.
I am citing this as an example because, despite the developments in Ukraine, the latest three G20 summits managed to reach consensus in their final documents, primarily on issues falling within the G20’s purview, namely the economy, finance, trade, and global politics.
This was particularly evident at last year’s G20 summit in New Delhi, where the all-embracing text on the situation in the world and global politics referred clearly to all conflicts without exception. Attempts to Ukrainise the G20 agenda have fallen through.
The G20 has elaborated an approach demonstrating that even seemingly irreconcilable positions can, after all, be approximated. I think that other organisations, primarily UN agencies and the UN Security Council would do well to make use of this example.
Question: US media reported earlier that Egypt, Qatar and the United States plan to offer Israel and HAMAS a take-it-or-leave-it ceasefire agreement. It has been stated that, should the parties reject it, the US-led negotiations format may be shut down. What is your opinion of this approach by Washington? Would Russia be willing to offer its good offices as an intermediary between the warring parties? Or maybe Russia has already tried to play this role?
Sergey Lavrov: Washington wants to preserve its monopoly over any processes in the Middle East. We know many cases when this position has resulted in failure. Today’s discussion with our colleagues from the Persian Gulf’s Arab countries has fully confirmed us in this belief.
Take-it-or-leave-it ultimatums invite more bloodshed. The United States has blocked multiple initiatives that different countries have submitted to the UN Security Council, including the Russian Federation. Recently, the United States put forward Joe Biden’s three-stage plan and pushed a corresponding resolution through the Security Council although Israel has fully ignored it.
Every time international mediators (I want to particularly note Qatar and Egypt) attempt to propose something reasonable, a compromise, the parties seem to achieve a preliminary agreement but then the Israeli leadership sets more conditions. This is deplorable. It is a tragedy. An immediate ceasefire is necessary. Meanwhile, it is important to remember that the problem stems from the fact that the Palestinian state issue has not been resolved for almost 80 years.
As for Russia, after October 7, 2023, we have been actively pushing for taking a decision on this matter within the UN Security Council. The Unites States has blocked all these attempts and imposed its own approach that has already failed. Not to mention the fact that the United States and the European Union have destroyed the quadrilateral group of international mediators, the Middle East Quartet, which included Russia, the United States, the EU and the UN. The United States has been trying to submit its own initiatives but to no avail.
At this stage, Russia is one of the few countries that is working with all the parties to this conflict without exception. We are working with all the Palestinian groups, with Israel, Iran, other countries in the region, and with all the Yemeni parties. The crisis on Palestinian territories has already backfired at the Lebanon-Israel border, in the Yemeni situation and in the Red Sea. Certainly, there are parties (and one can feel it) who wish to trigger a larger-scale war across the entire region. We must be unrelentless in our efforts to counter these attempts.
Among the initiatives, I want to note the steps we made long before the current developments, to assist Palestinians with restoring their unity and to help HAMAS and Fatah (represented by the current President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas) to overcome their disagreements. We have invited all the Palestinian groups to Moscow several times, to explain that Palestinian unity does not depend on Israel or the United States but only on the Palestinians. There was yet another meeting in Moscow at the end of February 2024 where a joint statement was issued. For the first time, all the Palestinian groups – Fatah, HAMAS and Islamic Jihad – agree to sign a document stating the need to unite based on the principles of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. It is an important step, but it remains on paper.
Question: Russia is holding the rotating BRICS Chairmanship this year. You have said that over 30 countries are ready to join that association. What is the progress of preparations for its October summit in Kazan? Will the group be expanded again, as it has already happened this year? How have the new BRICS countries, like Saudi Arabia, strengthened its potential? According to Western allegations, Riyadh is in no hurry to start working in it. Is this true? Will Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia with whom you have just now held substantive talks, be invited to Kazan?
Sergey Lavrov: BRICS is following an upward trajectory in its development, and this trend will only grow stronger. The Russian BRICS Chairmanship is greatly contributing to this. Our chairmanship programme includes hundreds of events in various spheres of BRICS activities in foreign policy, the economy, culture, education, interaction between our law enforcement agencies, and much more. A large package of documents will be prepared for the upcoming summit.
One of the items on the agenda of the Kazan summit has to do with the further expansion of BRICS, which is being done in keeping with the instructions our heads of state issued at the summit meeting last year for developing criteria governing the way we engage with our partner countries. This group of countries will be assigned the status ensuring their maximum involvement in all BRICS events.
As for new participants, there have been quite a few applications, but decisions are only taken by consensus in the group. We believe that many of these applications deserve to be given careful consideration. As I have said, this issue will be discussed by the heads of state. A ministerial BRICS meeting will take place during the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the preliminary proposals prepared by our Sherpas.
Regarding Saudi Arabia, it has been invited to join BRICS alongside other four countries – Argentina, Iran, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. I do not know what the West is writing or speaking on this score. In June 2024, we held a meeting of BRICS foreign ministers where our Saudi colleague Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud actively contributed to the discussion of the relevant documents. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been invited to the summit. We discussed this and also preparations for the summit at our meeting with him today. I am sure that the summit will be successful.
Question: It has been reported that the United States attempted to interfere in the latest elections held in Russia. Can you say who tried to influence the expression of our citizens’ will, and how and for what purpose they did that? How has our foreign ministry responded to that?
Sergey Lavrov: I have not heard about such allegations. As far as I can see, they only were made yesterday. Our State Duma MPs have already expressed their views on that score.
I believe that attempts at interfering in everything is a hallmark of the United States and Great Britain as its main ally. All these attempts invariably fail in Russia, but they might be effective in other countries. Quite a few government coups have been organised in this manner.
But this method has an opposite effect when applied against Russia. Our society and our people close their ranks in the face of direct threats, including the war which the United States and its vassals have launched against us through the Nazi regime in Kiev. The same goes for attempts to interfere in our internal affairs by means of modern technologies and other mechanisms, which have made much headway in the United States. We know how to deal with that. They still cannot puzzle out that their years-long attempts to stir Russian society always fail, just as this has happened this time too.
Question: The Qatari newspaper The New Arab wrote the other day about the superiority of the Chinese model of a diplomatic settlement in the Middle East because the other great powers have allegedly failed. Do you accept this assessment of the intermediaries’ diplomatic efforts?
Sergey Lavrov: I have not seen that article, but I am aware of China’s initiative. In particular, I knew that it invited Hamas and Fatah representatives to Beijing. Two or three such meetings were held last spring. That initiative had the same goal as our efforts to restore the unity of the Palestinian people, which I have mentioned. They have the same goal. The document adopted there [in Beijing] has reaffirmed everything that was signed in Moscow regarding he Palestinian groups’ readiness to restore unity based on the principles of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
We regularly exchange views with our Chinese colleagues on the Middle East and on virtually all other important foreign policy issues.
read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs
