Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced in her Feb. 14 press briefing that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is preparing a significant presentation for the upcoming G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in South Africa, which she described as a “landmark event not only for Pretoria, but also for the entire African continent.” This is the first time an African nation is chairing the G20; the heads of state summit will be in South Africa in November. This week’s ministerial meeting will be held Feb. 20-21 in Johannesburg, under the theme, “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability,” with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa giving the keynote speech.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, won’t be there. Deliberately insulting South Africa, and thereby all of Africa, Rubio announced that he would not “waste U.S. taxpayer money” on attending the meeting, where serious discussions with other nations would be possible, because South Africa is “doing some bad things,” and to attend would be “coddling anti-Americanism.”
With “diplomats” like that, why wonder that nations in the Global South view Russia and China as better friends than the United States!
Zakharova commented that discussion among the G20 Foreign Ministers will “focus on the international situation, which is alarmingly deteriorating under the impact of the confrontational policy by the neoliberal Western elites,” and take up the failures of the global economic system. She said that “the priorities stated by the South African presidency are designed to encourage economic growth, reduce inequality and imbalances, and ensure equitable access to financing for countries in the Global South.”
This year is not only the 80th anniversary of Victory in World War II and the founding of the UN, but it is also the 65th anniversary of the Russia-sponsored “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples adopted by the UN General Assembly to ensure Africa’s independence,” Zakharova pointed out.
She reported that Lavrov “will provide a detailed analysis of the international situation with an emphasis on the root causes of the observed crisis events, and will outline specific steps to overcome destructive phenomena. The Russian side will confirm its course on maintaining the central role of the UN in world affairs. We will speak out for strict adherence to the principles of the UN Charter in their entirety and interrelation. We will insist that there is no alternative to respectful interstate cooperation and ensuring equal and indivisible security for all.”
