🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at the meeting with Secretary-General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi (Riyadh, September 9, 2024)

💬 It is an important priority for us to develop relations with the Gulf countries in the economy, technology, trade and international issues. This region is always at the forefront of the current agenda.

This is our fifth meeting at the ministerial level. We appreciate the usefulness and value of this format, which allows us to discuss key issues as well as develop practical steps for the future.

I am looking forward to an interesting discussion. Thank you for arranging the meeting.

#GCC

🤝 On September 9, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Organisation for Islamic Cooperation Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha on the sidelines of the 7th Ministerial Meeting of the Strategic Dialogue Russia – Gulf Cooperation Council.

During their conversation, the Sides focused on the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone. They called for ending hostilities in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible and launching serious talks to attain a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement in accordance with UN and UN Security Council resolutions.

✅ They reaffirmed their mutual commitment to expanding and strengthening collaboration between Russia and the OIC in various fields still further.

#RussiaOIC

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s address at the 7th Ministerial Meeting of the Russia-Gulf Cooperation Council Strategic Dialogue

📍 Riyadh, September 9, 2024

💬 Sergey Lavrov: I am glad to have the opportunity to be here on the hospitable Saudi land to hold the 7th Ministerial Meeting of the Russia-Gulf Cooperation Council Strategic Dialogue. As our Chairman said we met in Moscow in 2023.

Riyadh, where the #GCC is headquartered, is hosting our event for the third time. The strategic dialogue at the level of Foreign Ministers was launched 13 years ago.

🌐 The world has changed a great deal since that time. We can state that the centuries-long hegemony of the West, which the United States and its allies are trying to preserve by all means, is going to be a thing of the past. <...> No doubt that the GCC is becoming a major independent centre in the developing multipolar international order.

The role of the Gulf Cooperation Council will be growing also because of the numerous crises still preserved in the Middle East. <...>

At the previous meeting in Moscow, we said that the achievement of genuine stability in the Middle East is impossible without settling the oldest regional problem – the Palestine-Israeli conflict through establishing a Palestinian state in compliance with UN resolutions. <...>

Together with our Arab friends, GCC countries inclusive, we have succeeded in securing, despite US resistance, the adoption of several Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions demanding a ceasefire. <...>

The confrontation between Israel and Iran has reached a new dangerous level.

⚠️ The Middle East is again on the brink of a big regional war. To prevent it is our common responsibility. We are working on normalising the situation with all sides. We closely coordinate our actions in the United Nations and on other platforms with our friends from the Gulf Cooperation Council.

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🎙 Briefing by Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Vladivostok, September 4, 2024)

🔹 IX Eastern Economic Forum
🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Nord Stream investigation
🔹 Current situation in Moldova
🔹 Politicization of the work of Interpol
🔹 Russophobic statements by Emmanuel Macron
🔹 International Anti-Fascism Forum
🔹 International Day of Solidarity of Journalists
🔹 Crisis in New Caledonia

📰 Read
📺 Watch

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#EEF2024

• The annual Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok expands opportunities for new mutually beneficial agreements with our partners in the Asia Pacific region as well as deeper cooperation with them in priority sectors, both in their specific areas and on a wider scale.

• The People’s Republic of China remains a major foreign economic partner of Russia’s Far Eastern regions. <...> Interregional ties, including border links, have played an increasing role in the development of the Russia-China comprehensive and strategic partnership.

#Ukraine #KievRegimeCrimes

• The Ukrainian Nazis continue with their barbaric attacks on civilians in Russia. These are not hostilities but rather acts of terrorism and extremism. <...> A growing number of captured Ukrainian Nazis confirm that the orders to kill civilians and loot Russian territories are carried out under direct orders from their command.

• The ‘collective West’ acts as the main client and instigator of the Kiev regime’s military aggression. The West is openly and boldly demonstrating its direct involvement as a concerned party.

• The insane idea of supporting terror against Russia has garnered support from several other Western attendees of that event, namely the foreign ministers of the Netherlands, Poland, France and the Baltic regimes. EU politicians have abandoned rational thinking and prudence in the hope of getting short-lived political benefits and Washington’s approval.

#NordStream

• Official Berlin is trying to claim that the situation around the act of sabotage is advancing in the right direction, and that everything is proceeding according to plan. However, they have failed to unveil any specific results so far.

• We can see an ineffective approach, and we cannot help but ask: How sincere are the intentions of German authorities to conduct unbiased investigations?

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answer to a question of the Moscow.Kremlin.Putin programme (Vladivostok, September 8, 2024)

❓ Question: The Kiev regime renames everything. Now they are drafting a project of renaming the copeck to have nothing in common with the Russian language. Will it be possible to reverse everything happening there one day?

💬 Segey Lavrov: In general the Ukrainian people are brotherly to us – we don't just talk about it, we know it. Those, whom the West has brought to power [in Ukraine] through a coup d'état, are executing its order – to turn the country one more time into a Nazi threat for the Russian Federation.

It is already clear to everyone that it cannot be done. However, the convulsions and the agony, which we are now witnessing, including in the course of the “Kursk action” are evident to everyone. Our cause is just.

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with RBC media holding on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (September 6, 2024)

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❓ My first question has to do with the forum’s main theme, Combining Strengths to Create New Potential. What new global potential is referred to here? Which countries is Russia ready to join forces with to create it?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: The idea is to create potential that will help countries become independent of the unipolar world, which Washington and the allies it has subjected to its will are trying to impose on the world to preserve their hegemony.

The West, which has been living at the expense of former colonies for centuries, is trying to sponge off others now in a seemingly more acceptable manner. We have the potential to overcome the obstacles created by the West with the use of the globalisation instruments it has created and is imposing on others.

More and more countries, almost all normal and independent states, are coming to see that nobody can be safe from the actions the West is taking to preserve its domination over Russia (it is the most striking example) and such countries as Iran, Venezuela, the DPRK and increasingly China.

[The West] wants to hinder its technological advancement and prevent it from gaining competitive advantages by imposing artificially inflated tariffs on the import of Chinese electric vehicles. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has said that they are doing this because China’s exports to Europe are too cheap. Is this fair competition?

The Americans have been essentially blocking the operation of the WTO, one of the main dispute settlement agencies, for years. They did it when Washington saw that China was beating them by playing by the rules created by the Word Trade Organisation. They prevent a quorum from being assembled to block additional appointments to vacancies in that agency.

In their documents, #BRICS and other associations of the emerging economies such as the African Union, CELAC and ASEAN, are increasingly calling for a fair reform of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank group, so that the number of votes the developing countries have in them reflects their real weight in the global economy and finance. <...>

Key talking points

• We do not want Nazi values, theories and practices, a ban on the freedom of speech, national languages, cultures and traditions, a ban on canonical churches and the like. The essence of our values is set out in the UN Charter.

• A major element of the UN Charter which BRICS fully accepts is a genuine concern for human rights. They must be respected regardless of race, sex, language or religion.

• As for NATO membership and the EU candidate status, which Türkiye was awarded nearly 70 years ago, a Turkish official has recently said that there are no rules in BRICS to preclude members of some organisations from associating with the group. The main requirement for full members of the group and countries that are developing various forms of cooperation with it is to share common values. It is not the values the EU is defending in Ukraine.

• We recognise the need to formalise relationships between BRICS members and the growing number of countries expressing interest in cooperating with the association, which now exceeds 30. This truly reflects the multipolar nature of the global landscape.

• Zelensky is not ready for honest talks. The West will not let him near them. They have set the goal — to radically weaken Russia and to inflict a "strategic defeat" on us. Zelensky is no longer able to understand what meets the interests of Ukrainians.

• The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has stopped lending funds for projects in Russia. The IMF and the World Bank have suspended all their projects in our country. They are not democratic structures.

• Our position on Taiwan has long been known: China is a single and united state, and the government of China is the only government of the People’s Republic of China.

🎙 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

💬 Sergey Lavrov: 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. <...>

🌐 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.

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🇺🇳 On September 9 — October 11 the 57th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will take place in Geneva.

The Session will cover a broad range of issues on the international human rights agenda. They include:

• protecting and encouraging economic, cultural and social rights,
• ensuring the right to development,
• protection of children,
• countering discrimination of women,
• promoting the interests of indigenous peoples,
• preventing the negative impact of unilateral enforcement measures on human rights,
• other related matters.

Session participants will also discuss the human rights situation in Belarus, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Burundi, Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, the DR Congo, Yemen, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Sudan, Somali, Sri Lanka and the Central African Republic.

❌ It is expected that, at the European Union’s initiative, the UNHRC will once again consider a politicised and extremely confrontational draft resolution on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation, in which it will be proposed that the powers of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation be extended by another year. Russia does not recognise the Special Rapporteur’s mandate and has officially declared its refusal to cooperate with this illegitimate special procedure in any form.

🇷🇺 The Russian delegation that will take part in the Session as an observer intends, as before, to extensively use all available possibilities to overcome confrontation, to promote a uniting agenda and to encourage international partners to understand the importance of developing a constructive international dialogue on encouraging and protecting human rights with due respect for the national, cultural and historical specifics of each state.

#HumanRights #UNHRC57

​🇷🇺💬 Déclarations du ministre russe des Affaires étrangères Sergueï Lavrov lors de la conférence de presse à l’issue de la septième réunion ministérielle du dialogue stratégique Russie-Conseil de coopération du Golfe (Riyad, le 9 septembre 2024):

#Ukraine

🔹La partie russe n’a jamais pris au sérieux la «formule de paix de Zelensky», mais a seulement exprimé sa surprise que quelqu’un d’autre y croit vraiment. Bien sûr, cela se produit sous la pression de l’Occident;

🔹Nous n’avons jamais voulu la terre de quelqu’un d’autre. Nous voulions simplement que les personnes qui font partie intégrante du monde russe, de la culture, de la langue, de l’histoire et de la religion russes soient traitées avec humanité, comme l’exigent le droit international, de nombreuses conventions sur les droits de l'homme et, surtout, la Charte des Nations unies.

🔹Rien ne fonctionnera si nous ne nous attaquons pas à la racine du problème. À cet égard, nous voyons d'un bon œil l'initiative du Président chinois Xi Jinping sur la sécurité mondiale, qui stipule que tout conflit doit être étudié à partir de ses causes profondes.

🔹La question n'est pas de savoir où se réunir et dans quelles circonstances. Il s'agit de savoir de quoi discuter. Si nous discutons d'appels au cessez-le-feu et pensons à des échanges de territoires, ce n'est pas sérieux. Je tiens à rappeler une fois de plus que le problème n'est pas celui des territoires, mais celui des droits des personnes.

🔹Si nous constatons une volonté sérieuse de défendre les droits de l'homme, que l'Occident brandit toujours fièrement sur ses «bannières», quelle que soit la question (mais pas sur celle-ci), je suis convaincu que nous nous mettrons facilement d'accord sur le lieu et l'heure de la réunion. Tout d'abord, nous devons comprendre de quoi nous allons discuter.


#Proche-Orient

🔹 Washington veut maintenir son monopole sur tous les processus au Proche-Orient. Nous avons constate à plusieurs reprises que cette position est un échec. La discussion d'aujourd'hui avec nos collègues des pays arabes du golfe Persique l'a pleinement confirmé.

🔹Il faut un cessez-le-feu immédiat. Et il ne faut pas oublier que la racine du problème réside dans l'incapacité, depuis près de 80 ans, à résoudre la question de la création d'un État palestinien.

#BRICS

🔹Les BRICS ont doublé le nombre de leurs membres, passant de cinq à dix. Cette organisation a déjà reçu plus de 30 demandes d'adhésion ou de relations particulières. Ce processus est le principal moteur de la mise en place d'un ordre mondial multipolaire.

🔹Les BRICS se développent de manière progressive. Cette tendance ne fera que s'intensifier et se renforcer. La présidence russe y contribue de toutes les manières possibles.

🤝 10 сентября в Москве состоялась встреча С.В.Лаврова с Генеральным секретарём Ассоциации регионального сотрудничества прибрежных стран Индийского океана (#АРСИО) С.аль-Фариси.

В рамках беседы рассмотрены ключевые вопросы повестки дня АРСИО, а также перспективные сферы взаимодействия с точки зрения дальнейшего вовлечения России (получила статус партнёра по диалогу в 2021 году) в практическую деятельность объединения. Секретариатом Ассоциации обозначен интерес к российским подходам на приоритетных для этой площадки секторальных направлениях: сотрудничество на море, туризм, «синяя» экономика, рыболовство и охрана окружающей среды.

Министром акцентирована важность прикладного потенциала АРСИО в контексте углубления процессов многосторонней кооперации на широком трансконтинентальном пространстве с участием таких системообразующих объединений, как #ШОС, #ЕАЭС и #АСЕАН.