Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will address the 78th UN General Assembly in New York this Saturday. EDUARDO MUNOZ (Portal)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, exiled to the closing session of the 78th UN General Assembly that met this week at the organization’s headquarters in New York, addressed the plenary session this Saturday, sandwiched between the representatives of Azerbaijan and Indonesia. Tenth in the order of speeches, Lavrov’s speech on the fifth day of the session focused on pointing out the ongoing conflicts in the world, which he almost invariably attributed to the neo-colonialist desire for a West “subordinate to the United States.” “Uh .” Addressing the worst international crisis, Nagorno-Karabakh, he has proposed measures to build trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including Russian peacekeeping missions in the Armenian separatist enclave, where Baku launched an offensive this week. Regarding the strength of the intervention forces, Lavrov noted that their number would be “decided on the spot.”
Although the agenda still includes the intervention of twenty of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, Lavrov’s speech effectively put an end to a lackluster reputation due to the absence of the heads of state of the main powers, from the Kingdom of Great Britain to France in India, and in that too the voice of the global south did not resonate with the expected intensity. Lavrov made little reference to Ukraine, asserting that the peace formula was “completely untenable” and that Russia’s abandonment of the Black Sea agreement allowing the export of Ukrainian grain was due to “non-fulfillment of promises made to Moscow.” ” . “We do not reject the proposals [de la ONU para resucitar el acuerdo]“We just believe they are unrealistic,” he explained. In July, Russia withdrew from the pact concluded a year earlier with the mediation of the UN and Turkey.
The stalwart Lavrov, who has headed the Russian Foreign Ministry since 2004, knows the UN well: From 1994 until this year, he was Russia’s permanent representative to the multilateral organization. The speaker denounced the attempts of the “West as a whole” to prevent the emergence of a “new world order,” also defined by “the alliance between Russia and China,” an idea he repeated several times. The West’s repeated message to the international community is tantamount to saying: “Anyone who wants to do things without our permission will not be able to do it,” Lavrov noted. The attempt to create counterweights in forums such as ASEAN or BRICS, whose members “defend their right to live in a multipolar architecture,” is subject to the Kremlin’s judgment due to the reality of “la pax Americana” that they seek to impose. “urbi et orbi,” the United States and the West, against a multipolar world. “We don’t want to live under anyone’s yoke,” Lavrov said.
In his few allusions to the war in Ukraine, which is already halfway through its second year, Lavrov denounced “the more than $170 billion that NATO has spent since February 2022 in support of Kiev” as well as the rejection of the international Community – from the “neocolonialist West,” as he put it, to Russian détente proposals in 2021.
After reviewing the history of the United Nations since its founding in 1945, on the rubble of World War II, Lavrov called for “the immediate end of the bloc with Cuba, the economic harassment of Venezuela and the sanctions imposed on Syria,” while congratulating the return of Damascus “into the Arab family,” alluding to its re-entry into the Arab League and the improvement of relations between Turkey and Syria. “But the West wants to Ukrainianize the international community,” he complained, choosing to let conflicts like the Israeli-Palestinian one or the one in Libya fester. He also criticized the EU’s stance in the confrontation between Kosovo and Serbia or the mediation imposed by Brussels in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Lavrov placed particular emphasis on defending the Russian military mission in this conflict. The head of Russian diplomacy noted that it was time to take measures to build trust between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the separatist enclave and that Moscow’s troops would contribute to this. The Russian Foreign Minister accused the West of trying to impose itself as a mediator between the two countries, which in his opinion was not necessary. “Yerevan and Baku have really resolved the situation,” Lavrov said.
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Hungary, closer to the Kremlin
As he did a year ago, Lavrov met with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjártó on the sidelines of the meeting on this Friday afternoon, as the latter confirmed to the Hungarian public television channel M1. It was a meeting of some political significance as Hungary sharply criticized sanctions against Russia by the European Union, of which it is a member, creating a rift in the unified European support for Ukraine. Bilateral cooperation has borne fruit: Szijjártó will visit Moscow in October and discuss energy issues with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak during the visit. “I will be visiting Moscow to take part in Russian Energy Week from October 11th to 13th. As you know, we consider energy cooperation to be the most important part of our current interaction,” the head of Hungarian diplomacy said in an interview with the Russian news agency TASS after his meeting with Lavrov. A visit that will probably cause displeasure in Brussels.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister was not the only one who spoke to Lavrov on the sidelines of the General Assembly. His Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein announced in a statement on Friday that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani would visit Moscow in the coming weeks. The announcement also followed the bilateral agreement between both.
An earlier version of the text incorrectly referred to “the 193 member states of NATO” when it meant “the United Nations”.
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