In his statement to the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke about the struggle between a neocolonial minority and a “global majority” who seek to end Western domination and create a new world order. According to Lavrov, power is shifting from the old order, which was dominated by Washington and lacked equality.
He stated that Americans and Europeans make promises but fail to keep them. Lavrov also quoted President Vladimir Putin, who referred to the West as an “empire of lies” that planned an offensive against its Soviet allies during World War II.
Soviet and then Russian leaders “received concrete political guarantees about the non-expansion of the NATO military alliance to the east,” which turned out to be pure deception.
“Washington and Brussels have relentlessly sought to expand their interests and alliances to subordinate the Global South and East, rejecting Russia’s desire for mutual security guarantees,” he said.
Turning to Ukraine, he said the West had “continued its ongoing militarization of the Russophobic Kiev regime,” brought to power in a “bloody coup” in 2014, and took that opportunity to “wage a hybrid war against our country.”
The goal since then had been the strategic defeat of Russia, he argued, and the US-led offensive now extends to outer space and online disinformation.
Lavrov said it was “obvious” that his creation of subordinate alliances was “directed against Russia and China” in an attempt to sabotage more “inclusive” regional forums.
He said that even in terms of culture, the anti-colonial “global majority” is fed up with the Western “yoke” and attacks on their religions, traditional values and sovereignty.
He saw Russia and China as champions of a new multipolar architecture – the ascending world order – and now the West was doing everything it could to block it.
The minister denounced the US-led use of unilateral sanctions and “coercive measures” against Cuba, Venezuela, Syria and others, as Washington continued its efforts to “Ukrainize” the international agenda.
He said it was time for a complete overhaul of the “global governance architecture”, including the United Nations-led international financial mechanisms and key UN bodies, along with what he said was a pro-capital-biased Secretariat. of NATO and the European Union.
Lavrov spoke in favor of expanding the Security Council to include Asia, Africa and Latin America.
He said reform had to be based on a new and balanced consensus, giving the example of the BRICS bloc of economic powers, which will expand beyond Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Lavrov ended his statement with a call for compromise, saying that “humanity stands at a crossroads… It is in our common interest to avoid a downward spiral leading to full-scale war.”
He invoked the Secretary-General’s call for world leaders to come together and negotiate in a spirit of compromise at this year’s United Nations General Assembly, “as we shape our common future for our common good.
“This is an excellent response to those who divide our world into democracies and autocracies, and dictate their neocolonial rules to others,” he said.