At the opening today of the two-day Conference on Eurasian Security held in Minsk, Belarus, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov provided a sweeping overview of the strategic situation. Here are summary excerpts taken from the partial translation posted by Russia’s Foreign Ministry:
“International relations have entered a stage of truly landmark tectonic change. We are witnessing the rise of a new and fairer multipolar world order. It is based on the cultural and civilizational diversity of the modern world and the natural right of nations to determine their own ways and forms of development through the realization of the main UN principle set out in its Charter: the sovereign equality of states.”
The “rapid enlargement of BRICS” is evidence of the move in the “Global South and the East” for “pragmatic, independent and nationally-oriented policies.” On Oct. 18 at the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, Putin spoke of this mainline trend “demonstrating the political will to search for solutions in politics, security and the economy that will be based on a carefully calibrated balance of interests.”
But there’s been “tenacious resistance from the Western minority…. Having made a destructive choice in favor of zero-sum geopolitical games, the North Atlantic states led by Washington have provoked a major security crisis in the European part of our continent….
