Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🎙 Statement of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Pankin at the G20 Development Ministerial Meeting on «Ensuring Access to Water and Sanitation» (Rio de Janeiro, July 22, 2024)
💬 We are thankful to our Brazilian partners for their hospitality and substantive discussions on access to water and sanitation issues, which are of paramount importance for sustainable development and an indispensable condition for overcoming present challenges. Efficient water management creates a solid foundation for eradicating poverty and hunger, addressing inequalities, improving health care and quality of life, and reducing environmental risks.
We share the views of the Brazilian presidency regarding insufficient progress in the implementation of SDG 6. A quarter of the world's population still lacks water. Increasing urbanization and inequality may bring the situation to a critical point. It is important that the G20 reaffirm commitment to constructive changes in the area.
☝️ Naturally, positive dynamics in the water sector will rely on the efforts to expand the economic, scientific and technological potential, including through international exchanges and support. The work should focus, first and foremost, on practical aspects of ensuring access to water and on building up implementation tools that have proved effective in the countries in need. <...>
Existing barriers to achieving SDG 6 include inadequate development funding. Amounts allocated are scarce and pale in comparison to the money and weapons «pumped» into burning conflicts. The Global South is facing persistent credit shortages, high interest rates, and the flow of borrowed funds into the Western sovereign debt.
Another challenge for developing countries is that many technologies from developed countries are patent-protected and come at prohibitive prices, which hampers their adoption where they are most needed.
🌐 This sensitive issue was discussed in detail with African partners at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June (the Russian-African conference entitled «Water: More Precious than Gold» was held). Russia reaffirmed its readiness to supply affordable modern equipment, share R&D and experience in searching and exploiting groundwater deposits, improving the quality of water supply, and rational water use.
Cooperation in this field has already been established with a number of African states. We are traditionally intensely working with neighbor partners from Central Asia. The BRICS Clean Rivers Programme initiated by Russia, which seeks to ensure cleaner rivers and prevent pollution of water resources in the #BRICS countries, is being successfully implemented.
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🇷🇺 Russia has unique water reserves that offer unrivalled opportunities for numerous economic sectors. <...> We have gained vast experience and practices in improving the quality of water supply. Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the target of constructing and modernizing at least two thousand drinking water supply and water treatment facilities by 2030. A unified digital inventory of the relevant infrastructure is expected to be launched in 2025.
In 2025, Russia will launch a new integrated federal water project. It will be twice as extensive as the previous ones and will improve living conditions for 22 million people by 2030.
🤝 We will actively participate in global efforts, including in the #G20, aimed at providing universal access to water and sanitation infrastructure.
Read in full
💬 We are thankful to our Brazilian partners for their hospitality and substantive discussions on access to water and sanitation issues, which are of paramount importance for sustainable development and an indispensable condition for overcoming present challenges. Efficient water management creates a solid foundation for eradicating poverty and hunger, addressing inequalities, improving health care and quality of life, and reducing environmental risks.
We share the views of the Brazilian presidency regarding insufficient progress in the implementation of SDG 6. A quarter of the world's population still lacks water. Increasing urbanization and inequality may bring the situation to a critical point. It is important that the G20 reaffirm commitment to constructive changes in the area.
☝️ Naturally, positive dynamics in the water sector will rely on the efforts to expand the economic, scientific and technological potential, including through international exchanges and support. The work should focus, first and foremost, on practical aspects of ensuring access to water and on building up implementation tools that have proved effective in the countries in need. <...>
Existing barriers to achieving SDG 6 include inadequate development funding. Amounts allocated are scarce and pale in comparison to the money and weapons «pumped» into burning conflicts. The Global South is facing persistent credit shortages, high interest rates, and the flow of borrowed funds into the Western sovereign debt.
Another challenge for developing countries is that many technologies from developed countries are patent-protected and come at prohibitive prices, which hampers their adoption where they are most needed.
🌐 This sensitive issue was discussed in detail with African partners at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June (the Russian-African conference entitled «Water: More Precious than Gold» was held). Russia reaffirmed its readiness to supply affordable modern equipment, share R&D and experience in searching and exploiting groundwater deposits, improving the quality of water supply, and rational water use.
Cooperation in this field has already been established with a number of African states. We are traditionally intensely working with neighbor partners from Central Asia. The BRICS Clean Rivers Programme initiated by Russia, which seeks to ensure cleaner rivers and prevent pollution of water resources in the #BRICS countries, is being successfully implemented.
<...>
🇷🇺 Russia has unique water reserves that offer unrivalled opportunities for numerous economic sectors. <...> We have gained vast experience and practices in improving the quality of water supply. Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the target of constructing and modernizing at least two thousand drinking water supply and water treatment facilities by 2030. A unified digital inventory of the relevant infrastructure is expected to be launched in 2025.
In 2025, Russia will launch a new integrated federal water project. It will be twice as extensive as the previous ones and will improve living conditions for 22 million people by 2030.
🤝 We will actively participate in global efforts, including in the #G20, aimed at providing universal access to water and sanitation infrastructure.
Read in full
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🎙 Statement by Aleksandr Pankin, deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, at the #G20 Development Ministerial Meeting on “Fighting Inequalities” (Rio de Janeiro, July 23, 2024)
💬 In recent decades, we have seen tangible progress in reducing inequality levels in certain areas. Last year, for example, the #BRICS countries were well ahead of the G7 in terms of global GDP share (35 percent against 30 percent, respectively). Still, additional steps are needed to remedy the situation. The creation of the G20 has greatly contributed to the democratization of global governance. The African Union's recent joining the G20 as a new member has been another significant achievement.
Other positive developments are also taking place. Today, the G20 is increasingly relying on universal mechanisms, such as the UN, rather than on behind-the-scenes West-driven arrangements, standards and club formats. This is how, for example, work on the thematic tracks on Tax Cooperation and Combatting Corruption is being carried out.
Russia has been consistently gaining ground in the global economic system. According to the World Bank, we have ranked among the top five largest economies, become a high-income country and one of the ten most profitable exporters. We are continuously improving the Russian manufacturing sector. We are enhancing our technological sovereignty, increasing the output of high value added products, and developing unique professional competencies.
We guarantee a reliable supply of energy, food and fertilizers to foreign consumers and offer them digital services, programmes and engineering solutions that are unaffected by political fluctuations. We intend to expand the range of supplies of knowledge-intensive and complex goods.
<...>
Strengthening the production capacities and human resources of developing countries and increasing gains is of crucial importance. This would allow to put an end to the situation, when, according to the Africans themselves, for ages the continent has been supplying raw materials and agricultural stuff to the West, which has been profiting from it. A vivid example by one African leader: Africa gets less than 6 percent of the USD 46 billion from global sales of African grown coffee.
It is high time to put an end to these neo-colonial practices. We should focus efforts on strengthening the industrial sector of the Global South and East, increasing the funding of their healthcare and education, digitalization, and expanding university and student exchanges. We have actively advocated these ideas within BRICS partners as well as in the #RussiaAfrica format. Developed countries, according to their own pledges, are expected to allocate at least 0.7 percent of GDP to development assistance, which has been stagnating.
<...>
Geopolitical games played by the West may lead to an irreparable fragmentation of the world economy and further fuel inequality. Our societies will thus be doomed to utter impoverishment and radicalization. The G20 can and must put a firm stop to that, bringing us back on the path of multilateralism. The key to our success is to reaffirm adherence to the UN Charter, international law and mutually beneficial cooperation.
📄 Full statement
💬 In recent decades, we have seen tangible progress in reducing inequality levels in certain areas. Last year, for example, the #BRICS countries were well ahead of the G7 in terms of global GDP share (35 percent against 30 percent, respectively). Still, additional steps are needed to remedy the situation. The creation of the G20 has greatly contributed to the democratization of global governance. The African Union's recent joining the G20 as a new member has been another significant achievement.
Other positive developments are also taking place. Today, the G20 is increasingly relying on universal mechanisms, such as the UN, rather than on behind-the-scenes West-driven arrangements, standards and club formats. This is how, for example, work on the thematic tracks on Tax Cooperation and Combatting Corruption is being carried out.
Russia has been consistently gaining ground in the global economic system. According to the World Bank, we have ranked among the top five largest economies, become a high-income country and one of the ten most profitable exporters. We are continuously improving the Russian manufacturing sector. We are enhancing our technological sovereignty, increasing the output of high value added products, and developing unique professional competencies.
We guarantee a reliable supply of energy, food and fertilizers to foreign consumers and offer them digital services, programmes and engineering solutions that are unaffected by political fluctuations. We intend to expand the range of supplies of knowledge-intensive and complex goods.
<...>
Strengthening the production capacities and human resources of developing countries and increasing gains is of crucial importance. This would allow to put an end to the situation, when, according to the Africans themselves, for ages the continent has been supplying raw materials and agricultural stuff to the West, which has been profiting from it. A vivid example by one African leader: Africa gets less than 6 percent of the USD 46 billion from global sales of African grown coffee.
It is high time to put an end to these neo-colonial practices. We should focus efforts on strengthening the industrial sector of the Global South and East, increasing the funding of their healthcare and education, digitalization, and expanding university and student exchanges. We have actively advocated these ideas within BRICS partners as well as in the #RussiaAfrica format. Developed countries, according to their own pledges, are expected to allocate at least 0.7 percent of GDP to development assistance, which has been stagnating.
<...>
Geopolitical games played by the West may lead to an irreparable fragmentation of the world economy and further fuel inequality. Our societies will thus be doomed to utter impoverishment and radicalization. The G20 can and must put a firm stop to that, bringing us back on the path of multilateralism. The key to our success is to reaffirm adherence to the UN Charter, international law and mutually beneficial cooperation.
📄 Full statement
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
📺 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting on the sidelines of the 79th Session.
📍 New York, September 25, 2024
💬 The formation of a multilateral world requires upgrading of the international governance architecture, if we want to build a more just and democratic world order based on the enduring principles of the UN Charter in their entirety and interconnection.
#G20, as a leading economic forum, can give a powerful boost to these objective processes that are dictated by life itself. We believe that the G20 should strictly adhere to its mandate and not delve into issues of peace and security and other universal problems, which the UN is here to deal with. It is important that the activities of our platform are strictly based on the principle of consensus.
At the G20 summit in New Delhi in 2023, we promised to strengthen the voice of developing countries in collective decision-making. It is necessary to translate these promises into concrete actions. The reform of international institutions, which must be considered as global public goods, should be carried out taking into account the interests of new growing centres of global development. The current conditions show that there have been significant changes in the balance of economic leaders.
📈 Two years ago, BRICS member countries surpassed the G7 in terms of real GDP. According to forecasts, the ten BRICS members will produce about 37% of the world’s output, while the G7 group will fall to 27% or even lower.
At the same time, we can see the African continent and other regions of the Global South and East quickly rising. Russia is actively reorienting its trade to their markets. This includes the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
🌐 Innovative multilateral formats such as #BRICS (where Russia presides in 2024), the SCO, the EAEU, ASEAN, the African Union, and CELAC are becoming increasingly important.
Projects designed to align integration efforts, such as Russia’s flagship Greater Eurasian Partnership initiative, are picking up momentum.
<...>
A tangible progress has been achieved in the context of efforts to de-dollarise the international financial and economic system. In particular, the share of national currencies in Russia’s settlements with the SCO and EAEU countries has exceeded 90%. Russia and its BRICS partners have achieved an indicator equal to 65%, and this figure grows. The share of the dollar in the BRICS payments pattern is currently below 29%.
<...>
🤷♂️ Nevertheless, certain global mechanisms are still in the West’s hands, and it tends to abuse them. A matter of particular concern are the attempts on the part of the United States and its allies to impose a confrontational agenda on international organisations in order to make them the vehicles of unilateral restrictions, plunder, impoundment of sovereign assets, trade wars and unfair competition, including in the name of environmentalism and climate.
All of these are clear manifestations of neocolonialism. Over the past ten years, the collective West has introduced more than 21,000 illegal restrictions against Russia alone. Their extraterritorial use – and this is an even more odious, illegitimate, raider-style approach – is primarily affecting the poorest countries and destitute population groups, depriving them of affordable energy, food and fertiliser.
<...>
Another topical task is combat the predominance and influence of Western states’ citizens who occupy top positions in international secretariats.
🇺🇳 A reform of the global governance system should heed the intransient central role of the UN in the system of international relations. The UN Charter and international law should not be substituted by any behind-the-scenes "rules".
<...>
☝️ We should be guided by a striving to achieve genuine multilateralism, the main guarantee of strategic stability, indivisible security and an open and non-discriminatory economy.
Full transcript
📍 New York, September 25, 2024
💬 The formation of a multilateral world requires upgrading of the international governance architecture, if we want to build a more just and democratic world order based on the enduring principles of the UN Charter in their entirety and interconnection.
#G20, as a leading economic forum, can give a powerful boost to these objective processes that are dictated by life itself. We believe that the G20 should strictly adhere to its mandate and not delve into issues of peace and security and other universal problems, which the UN is here to deal with. It is important that the activities of our platform are strictly based on the principle of consensus.
At the G20 summit in New Delhi in 2023, we promised to strengthen the voice of developing countries in collective decision-making. It is necessary to translate these promises into concrete actions. The reform of international institutions, which must be considered as global public goods, should be carried out taking into account the interests of new growing centres of global development. The current conditions show that there have been significant changes in the balance of economic leaders.
📈 Two years ago, BRICS member countries surpassed the G7 in terms of real GDP. According to forecasts, the ten BRICS members will produce about 37% of the world’s output, while the G7 group will fall to 27% or even lower.
At the same time, we can see the African continent and other regions of the Global South and East quickly rising. Russia is actively reorienting its trade to their markets. This includes the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
🌐 Innovative multilateral formats such as #BRICS (where Russia presides in 2024), the SCO, the EAEU, ASEAN, the African Union, and CELAC are becoming increasingly important.
Projects designed to align integration efforts, such as Russia’s flagship Greater Eurasian Partnership initiative, are picking up momentum.
<...>
A tangible progress has been achieved in the context of efforts to de-dollarise the international financial and economic system. In particular, the share of national currencies in Russia’s settlements with the SCO and EAEU countries has exceeded 90%. Russia and its BRICS partners have achieved an indicator equal to 65%, and this figure grows. The share of the dollar in the BRICS payments pattern is currently below 29%.
<...>
🤷♂️ Nevertheless, certain global mechanisms are still in the West’s hands, and it tends to abuse them. A matter of particular concern are the attempts on the part of the United States and its allies to impose a confrontational agenda on international organisations in order to make them the vehicles of unilateral restrictions, plunder, impoundment of sovereign assets, trade wars and unfair competition, including in the name of environmentalism and climate.
All of these are clear manifestations of neocolonialism. Over the past ten years, the collective West has introduced more than 21,000 illegal restrictions against Russia alone. Their extraterritorial use – and this is an even more odious, illegitimate, raider-style approach – is primarily affecting the poorest countries and destitute population groups, depriving them of affordable energy, food and fertiliser.
<...>
Another topical task is combat the predominance and influence of Western states’ citizens who occupy top positions in international secretariats.
🇺🇳 A reform of the global governance system should heed the intransient central role of the UN in the system of international relations. The UN Charter and international law should not be substituted by any behind-the-scenes "rules".
<...>
☝️ We should be guided by a striving to achieve genuine multilateralism, the main guarantee of strategic stability, indivisible security and an open and non-discriminatory economy.
Full transcript