The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, spoke this Saturday at the UN General Assembly, where he harshly criticized the “empire of lies” that the West considers, but avoided addressing the war that his country is waging in Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Minister accused the West of failing to fulfill its written and legally binding commitments, arguing that it is a “veritable empire of lies.”
“Russia, like many countries, knows this firsthand,” Lavrov said, criticizing the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance.
According to the government official, the United States of America (USA) and other “subordinate” Western allies continue to fuel “conflicts that artificially divide humanity into hostile blocs” and “make it difficult to achieve global objectives.”
“They are trying to force the world to follow their own egocentric rules. (…) They are doing everything possible to prevent the formation of a true multipolar world order,” he added.
According to Lavrov, NATO’s military expansion in the Asia-Pacific region creates the risk of a new source of tension.
“A new and dangerous demonstration of NATO expansionism is the attempt to expand the bloc’s area of responsibility to the entire Eastern Hemisphere, under the malicious ‘slogan’ of ‘indivisibility of the security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions.'”, said.
Regarding the war in Ukraine, which, like last year, once again marked the debates in the UN General Assembly, Lavrov limited himself to briefly recapitulating some historical grievances dating back to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, but He did not delve into the current situation. combats that have lasted 19 months now.
Furthermore, and seeking to capture the attention of developing countries and other non-Western nations, the leader of Russian diplomacy described as “selfish” the West’s attempts to include the issue of Ukraine on the agenda of each international meeting, leaving aside other global crises. .
“A blatant manifestation of the selfishness of the Western minority is the obsessive attempts to ‘Ukrainianize’ the agenda of international debates, leaving aside a series of unresolved regional crises, many of which have continued for many years and even decades,” he pointed. .
Always in this sense, Lavrov once again asked the United States and Western countries to lift sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela and Syria.
The minister stated that the sanctions represent “a serious violation of the principle of sovereign equality”, since the West uses them “as unilateral and coercive measures” and that they “first harm the most vulnerable strata of society.”
In accordance with UN General Assembly procedures, which prioritize speeches by heads of state over other government officials, Lavrov spoke four days after Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky and US President Joe Biden , will address the world on Tuesday, on the first day of the General Debate.
At the time, Zelensky accused Russia of using food, energy and even children as “weapons” against Ukraine. Biden, for his part, urged world leaders to maintain support for Ukraine: “If we allow Ukraine to divide, will the independence of any nation be secure?” he asked.
Lavrov and Zelensky addressed the UN Security Council on Wednesday but did not cross paths. The Ukrainian leader left the body room before the Russian minister entered.
Source: TSF
