In an interview with TASS, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov commented on the fake Afghan bounty story as well as the negative effects of poor U.S.-China relations. “It is difficult not to wonder: who needs this and why all of this is going on? And why now, precisely at this moment, this provocative bit of fake news emerges?” the deputy minister stated concerning the fake story that Russia paid the Taliban to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan, implying its aim is to sabotage the good cooperation between Russia and the U.S. on bringing about a settlement in Afghanistan.
“A possible explanation is that some part of anti-Russian-minded Washington’s political establishment may not be happy with the quite effective interaction we’ve got on the Afghan issue, I mean, here [at the Russian Foreign Ministry] with our colleagues from the U.S. State Department,” Morgulov said. This cooperation also included trilateral cooperation among the U.S., Russia and China as well.
He pointed out the timing of the hoax with the November Presidential elections and the fact that President Donald Trump had promised to end the longest military campaign.
On China Morgulov said he hoped the U.S. would understand that conflict with China not only poses a threat to their own bilateral relations, but with other countries as well. “I must say, I hope that Washington will sooner or later comprehend that a conflict between both of these powerful states, the world’s largest economies will neither benefit them, nor this whole immense global village of ours,” he said.
“Today’s geopolitical situation is fundamentally different from what it was during the Cold War era, when the formation along three sides of a triangle was perceived as ‘two against one.’ Today, this calculation doesn’t work. A complication along any side of the triangle does not correspond to interests of any countries involved in it, as well as the world in general. This is why we are advocating a unifying agenda,” the diplomat said.
On Hong Kong Morgulov remarked, “If we all respect the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of China — and I am certain there are no doubts about that — then we must view the Hong Kong situation as a strictly internal affair of China. This is where our position stems from. We stand categorically against any foreign meddling in relations between the central government and one of the country’s regions,” he said.
In an obvious reference to the hypocrisy of Great Britain, he said, he considers it funny that reproaches for a lack of democracy come from those who “ruled over the colonial Hong Kong for almost 100 years, but somehow did not use this time to introduce direct elections there, sending governor generals from overseas instead without taking the opinion of the locals into account.”
