Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took the occasion of today’s annual overview for the press to put forward Russia’s outlook on steering through the tectonic developments, as the West’s ‘rules-based’ order breaks up. It is based upon mining the deep cultures of ‘civilizational states.'
He stated that Russia “will deal with all our partners in the Global Majority countries and in the Western states that are interested in talking with Russia and discussing concrete mutually beneficial projects based on the principles of equality…. [T]he main principles are equality, mutual respect and a balance of interests. These are the absolutely unwavering principles when it comes to interaction on the international stage…. The principle of equality cannot be taken out of the equation. In an equal dialogue, those who have more resources will have greater influence on the outcome, yet it is vital to strive for results that will represent a balance of interests.” The “amendments made to the Constitution of Russia in 2020 are vital for strengthening our national sovereignty. We are ready to work with all foreign states that will reciprocate and are willing to deal with us honestly on the basis of equality, without blackmail or pressure.”
It “is no longer a secret that the so-called isolation of Russia has failed.” Our 2025 performance demonstrates “our commitment to fostering a sustained belt of neighbourly relations and cooperation within the CIS, EAEU, CSTO, and SCO frameworks.” Russia will bring into reality a “Greater Eurasian Partnership and, building upon it,” will create “a pan-continental architecture of equal and indivisible security.”
In response to the first question, Lavrov explained that the difficulty of their project was the same as the strength of their project—the Eurasian continent has several ‘civilizational’ states, China, Iran, Arab, and Indian—large states with thousands of years of culture and history. “This is one of the reasons why it is difficult to unite all these trends under a single umbrella…. It is noteworthy that in Eurasia—the world’s largest continent—unlike Africa and Latin America, there exists no pan-continental organisation. There are numerous sub-regional structures, including the OSCE, ASEAN, ... CIS, EAEU, SCO,” etc. “Yet, a continent-wide structure remains absent.”
