#UNGA78

🇺🇳 The High-Level Week of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly has concluded!

The Russian delegation, led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, took part in 35+ bilateral and multilateral meetings, voicing Russia's principled positions on important issues regarding the international and regional agenda.

📹 #ICYMI

👉 Day 1
👉 Day 2
👉 Day 3

FM Sergey Lavrov's remarks at the UN Security Council meeting.
FM Sergey Lavrov's remarks at the General Debate of 78th Session of the UN General Assembly.
FM Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement at the General Debate at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly

📍 New York, September 23, 2023

Key talking points:

🌐 Right in front of our eyes, there is a new world order being born.

❌ In 2021, our proposals to conclude agreements on mutual security guarantees in Europe without changing Ukraine's non-aligned status were rudely rejected. The West continued its ongoing militarisation of the Russophobic Kiev regime, which had been brought to power as a result of a bloody coup, and to use it to wage a hybrid war against our country.

• An attempt to extend the bloc's area of responsibility to the entire Eastern Hemisphere under the pernicious slogan of “indivisible security of the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific region” has become a new dangerous manifestation of NATO expansionism.

• The logic of the historical progress is undeniable, the main trend of which being that states constituting the global majority are strengthening their sovereignty and defending their national interests, traditions, culture, and ways of life. They no longer want to live under anybody’s yoke; they want to be friends and trade with each other, but also with the rest of the world – only on an equal footing and for mutual benefit. Associations such as #BRICS and the #SCO are on the rise.

❗️ Perhaps for the first time since 1945, when the UN was established, there is now a chance for genuine democratisation of global affairs.

• It is time to reform the existing global governance architecture, which has long been failing to meet the needs of our time. <...> The US & its allies should abandon their artificial restraints on the redistribution of voting quotas in the IMF & the World Bank.

🇺🇳 It is time to look at fairer methods of making up the UN Secretariat. The criteria that have been in place for many years do not reflect the actual influence of states in global affairs & artificially ensure the excessive dominance of citizens of NATO & EU countries.

Read in full

⚡️ On Russia’s efforts to stabilise the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh

Russia continues to act consistently as it takes steps to stabilise the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. Russian peacekeepers are monitoring compliance with the ceasefire which was declared on September 20 through their active mediation.

❗️ The indisputable priority of our efforts is to prevent a new armed conflict and more civilian casualties.

Russian peacekeepers are providing massive humanitarian aid to Armenians. In the previous two days alone, Russian peacekeepers brought 125 tonnes of humanitarian goods and 65 tonnes of fuel into the region. There are plans to ensure the regular delivery of food and essential goods along the Lachin and Agdam routes. According to recent information, up to 700 refugees, including over 400 children, are currently in the Russian peacekeepers’ base camp.

Two rounds of talks between representatives of Baku and Stepanakert took place with the direct involvement of the Russian peacekeepers command. The priority issues on the agenda of these meetings included demilitarisation, and efforts to restore peaceful life and ensure the rights and security of the Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh.

☝️ We hope that positive results from this process will help an early resumption of the work to carry out the package of agreements reached by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020-2022, including unblocking transport routes, delimiting the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, coordinating a peace treaty, and promoting humanitarian contacts.

🔴 #LIVE: The UN Security Council holds a meeting to discuss last September's attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

🔗 https://www.ruptly.tv/en/events/202309261900-LIVE15716-un-security-council-holds-meeting-on-threats-and-security-

🔗 https://media.un.org/en/webtv

🔴 #LIVE: Briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria #Zakharova on topical foreign policy issues

🔗 https://www.ruptly.tv/en/events/202309270700-LIVE15703-russian-mfa-spokesperson-zakharova-holds-weekly-briefing

🔗 https://mid.ru/en/press_service/video/

🇷🇺🇺🇳 Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN:

🎙 Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on the acts of sabotage at the Nord Stream pipeline (September 2022)

Read in full

💬 It has been a year since the sabotage in the Baltic Sea and almost as much since the Security Council convened on this issue for the first time. During that time, we have heard numerous assertions that national investigations by Germany, Denmark, and Sweden would allow to identify the perpetrators very soon. However there have been no results so far despite the seven UNSC meeting in both open and closed formats.

🔹 More and more evidence is emerging in the expert community that it is Washington who stood behind the disruption of the Nord Stream pipeline and went ahead with this outrageous criminal act guided by a narrowly self-interested desire to consolidate its dominance in Europe, which is in dire need of Russian energy.

🔹 In November, General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia submitted requests to competent German, Danish, and Swedish authorities to provide legal aid and establish joint investigative taskforce. We received but formal replies.

🔹 Some Western delegations on the Council, unable to cope with their emotions, directly pointed out at our meetings that the disruption of Nord Stream had been a response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. Such candid confessions would have allowed even a novice investigator to conclude this case without much trouble. But since Germany, Denmark and Sweden have been ordered to fence off the complicity of their overseas "big brother", their investigators have their hands tied and eyes closed.

☝️ Our country will continue to seek an objective & thorough establishment of all the circumstances of the incident, with the obligatory involvement of Russian investigative bodies & interested parties, as well as bringing to justice all those who ordered & perpetrated the sabotage. To that end, we will use all means available, including in the Security Council.

❗️ #DebunkingMyths spread by the EU leadership

Myth: Russia is offering 1 million tonnes of grain to African countries in a parody of generosity. What cynicism and contempt for African countries, when we know that the Black Sea agreement has so far delivered more than 30 million tonnes of exports, mainly to the most vulnerable countries. And that the solidarity routes, alternative routes developed by the EU and with the EU, have already enabled 40 million tonnes of grain to be exported. 1 million tonnes offered — as if it were a gift. This is absolutely appalling cynicism. On the other hand, there are those who are really fighting to come to the aid of the most fragile and vulnerable populations.

Fact: This statement by Charles Michel has no basis in reality. Ukrainian grain has mostly been delivered and continues to be delivered to the EU.

The President of the European Council’s statement represents not only a textbook case of crude EU propaganda but also a fundamentally new chapter in the history of European public opinion.

However, things that Charles Michel has held back are even more interesting.

👉 Let's take a closer look:

• The EU member states are the main beneficiaries of the Black Sea Initiative since about 40 percent of the Ukrainian agricultural products exported via this route went their way. The share of recipients from the countries that are most in need is less than 3 percent.

• Over nearly 18 months, the EU has failed to establish food exports via the “solidarity corridors” to third countries, if such a goal really existed in the first place.

• The EU needs to offset the damage to its own food security caused by unilateral sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus and ill-conceived policies in the macroeconomic, energy, and food sectors.

• The EU intentionally overstates the potential of Ukrainian agricultural output to ensure global food security (Ukraine's share of the global wheat market is no more than 5 percent).

🎙 Excerpt from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with TASS information agency (Moscow, September 27, 2023)

❓ Question: I have to ask about a pressing topic, Armenia. Do you think Armenia may lose Russia?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: There are plenty of those willing to lose Russia and gain new friends.

Historically, geographically and geopolitically, it is simply not possible to lose Russia by totally ignoring its interests in the South Caucasus. Yet, certain top officials in Yerevan harbour such hopes, and openly admit it.

A similar idea was alluded to in the recent remarks by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who spoke about the need to make up for the failed alliances that Armenia had expected to ensure its security, and to expand its circle of security partners.

If they are counting on the US (which directly follows from statements made by many Armenian leaders), they had better look at recent history to see how the US treated those it sought to take under its wing as it advanced its geopolitical interests in faraway territories of the world.

☝️ The fate of all these people is rather unenviable.