In discussing the upcoming series of Asian summits to begin this weekend, which Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will attend, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out in her weekly press conference yesterday that Russia has traditionally seen these meetings as “an important element of the multipolar architecture of regional security with the potential to develop mutually beneficial multilateral cooperation.” But, she warned, the U.S. and NATO have plans to disrupt the region for their own geopolitical purposes, and Russia intends to say something about them.
Among the many challenges the Asia Pacific faces, she explained, are U.S. efforts “to upset the balance of the current system of interstate relations established here,” along with seeking confrontation with Asia through “narrow-bloc instruments of domination, including sabotaging the operations of existing regional mechanisms and simultaneously launching various non-inclusive so-called India-Pacific projects.” The latter is a clear reference to the Biden administration’s flimsy Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), set up only to counter China’s presence in the region while offering nothing to nations that join it.
