YouSaid · the spoken record

Sergey Lavrov

lines on the record: 265
first: 2004-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 12
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“For Russia, it is obvious that threats and challenges can be countered effectively only through concerted efforts made in strict compliance with the universally recognized norms of international law, above all the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. This global Organization should play a central coordinating role in world politics in order to fully unlock its potential for universal multilateralism and legitimacy. Recently, we have witnessed persistent attempts to diminish the role of the United Nations in resolving the key problems of today, to marginalize it or to transform it into a malleable tool for promoting someone’s selfish interests.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“I am glad to have this opportunity to speak from the rostrum of the General Assembly. The fact that we have once again gathered in this Hall symbolizes our collective readiness to resume our normal communication, which had been suspended since the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Essentially, we have no other option since broad cooperation at the United Nations is particularly relevant now when the number of problems on the international agenda is increasing. The range of cross- border threats is also expanding. Numerous regional hotbeds of tension have a substantial destabilizing potential. The “might is right” approach is increasingly being used instead of the “right is might” approach. Instead of international law, increasingly there is no consensus among the leading Powers on the principles of the world order.”
2021-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 76 (2021)
“Half a century ago, the great Russian scholar, public figure and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov wrote, “The division of mankind threatens it with destruction ... If mankind is to step away from the brink, it must overcome its divisions”. The founding fathers of the United Nations saw its chief task as one of uniting. Let us show ourselves worthy of their legacy and their memory.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In the run-up to the next anniversary of the United Nations, I would like to underline that despite all its trials, the system of a world order centred on the United Nations remains stable and has considerable capacity for resilience. It is a kind of safety net, and if we respect the Charter, it will guarantee humankind’s peaceful development by finding a balance of what are sometimes the very contradictory interests of various countries. Perhaps the main conclusion to be drawn from those 75 years is that States’ experience of non-ideological cooperation in the face of a common threat, gained in the course of that cruellest of wars, is still relevant. Today’s challenges and threats are no less dangerous. Only by working together can we respond to them effectively.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“That approach is at the core of President Putin’s initiative in establishing a greater Eurasian partnership made up of the member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and which is open to all States in Eurasia, including the European Union member countries. We have already made progress in that direction by linking development plans for the Eurasian Economic Union and the Chinese Belt and Road initiative. The consistent implementation of those efforts will enable us not only to speed up economic growth but also to lay a solid foundation for building a space of peace, stability and cooperation from Lisbon to Jakarta.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“That all leads to the fragmentation of the global economic arena and has a negative impact on people’s lives. We believe that it is essential to return to working constructively together both in entities of the United Nations system and in the Group of 20. We will help to create conditions conducive to that, including through the potential of the BRICS group of countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, of which Russia will assume the pro tempore presidency in 2020. Together with other like-minded countries, we support harmonizing integration processes.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The reform of the Security Council is aimed at improving the anti-crisis and peacekeeping activities of the United Nations. The realities of our multipolar world mean that our chief task is finding a formula that can end the obvious geopolitical imbalances in the Council’s current composition and expand the representation of African, Asian, and Latin American countries on it, with the broadest possible agreement of Member States. Dividing lines are damaging to the world economy as well as world politics. The economy’s inclusive growth is being limited as a result of the fact that other rules are replacing the norms of the World Trade Organization — methods involving unfair competition, protectionism, trade wars, unilateral sanctions and blatant abuse of the status of the American dollar.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The tensions in the Persian Gulf are being artificially escalated. We call for resolving the existing disagreements through dialogue, without resorting to baseless accusations. This summer we contributed by presenting Russia’s renewed concept for collective security in the region. Yesterday, in support of the efforts of African States to end the conflicts on their continent, Russia held a Security Council meeting on strengthening peace and security in Africa (see S/PV.8627). In Sochi, at the end of October, we will host the first-ever Russia-Africa Summit, and we hope that its results will enable us to improve the effectiveness of the fight against the current challenges and threats, as well as of the work on the development issues that African countries face.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“With the decisive contribution of Russia, Turkey and Iran as guarantors of the Astana format, the Constitutional Committee has been established, as Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced a few days ago. On the agenda are post-conflict reconstruction and the creation of conditions conducive to the return of refugees. The United Nations system should play a much more active role in this. In general, however, there are still many problems in the Middle East and North Africa. We have seen what is happening in Libya and Yemen. The prospects for a resolution of the Palestinian peace process and the realization of the Arab Peace Initiative are on the verge of collapse. The attempts to play the Kurdish card, which is potentially a combustible issue for many countries, are alarming.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“It will be important to work to reach legally binding agreements on every aspect of international information security. We should also ramp up our efforts to settle the many crises and conflicts all over the world. The main point is to get the parties involved to comply with existing agreements and not to allow them to invent pretexts for refusing to fulfil commitments they have already made. Of course, that also applies to conflicts in the post-Soviet space, including the importance of strict compliance with the provisions of the Minsk package of measures for resolving the crisis in eastern Ukraine. In Syria, where there have been major successes in the fight against terrorism, the priority now is further advancing the political process, led by the Syrians with the assistance of the United Nations.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In the interests of mobilizing the potential of regional organizations to suppress the threat of terrorism, Russia convened a ministerial meeting of the Security Council (see S/PV.8626), with the participation of representatives of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Commonwealth of Independent States. One of the most crucial tasks of the international community is developing generally acceptable approaches to regulating the digital arena and understanding the processes related to the development of artificial intelligence. Last year, the General Assembly endorsed the start of substantive work to agree on rules for responsible State behaviour in the information space. On Russia’s initiative it also adopted resolution 73/187, on combating cybercrime.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The adoption of such a resolution would represent a major contribution to creating the conditions for a successful Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons next year. Russia will continue to work diligently to strengthen global security. We are acting with the utmost responsibility in this area by exercising restraint in building our defence capacity, although obviously not at the expense of effectively guaranteeing national security, and in full compliance with international law. We support the consolidation of efforts to combat international terrorism under the auspices of the United Nations.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Together with China, we support an agreement on a legally binding document on the prevention of an arms race in outer space. So far the reaction of the United States and its allies to all of these proposals has not been encouraging. We are also disturbed by the protracted lack of a response to a proposal we made to our American colleagues a year ago to adopt a high-level Russian-American declaration on the unacceptability and inadmissibility of nuclear war, a war that by definition no one can win. We call on all Member States to support that initiative. Today I would like to announce that during the current session of the General Assembly we will introduce a draft resolution on strengthening and developing the system of agreements on arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. We invite everyone to constructive negotiations.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“On top of that, the United States refuses to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear- Test-Ban Treaty and has lowered the threshold in its doctrinal documents for the use of nuclear weapons. It is also on a course to transform cyberspace and outer space into arenas for military confrontation. Russia has put forward a number of initiatives to prevent the further escalation of tensions. President Putin announced the decision to refrain from deploying land- based intermediate- and short-range missiles in Europe and other regions as long as the United States does the same. We have urged the United States and NATO to sign up to a moratorium in that regard. We have also repeatedly invited Washington to begin negotiations on extending the New START Treaty.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“It would be dangerous to yield to the temptation to divide it into conflicting blocs, which would be at odds with the goal of uniting the efforts of every country of the region to respond effectively to the continuing threats and challenges there, including that of resolving the whole complex of issues on the Korean peninsula by exclusively peaceful means. Tremendous damage has been done to the decades- old system of global strategic stability by the actions of the United States, which, after withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, has now destroyed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, with the obedient support of every member of NATO. Now the future of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) is in question.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Today, regrettably, the consensus reached back then at the highest level is being replaced by the practices that NATO has adopted as its rules, as it continues to think in terms of seeking out enemies, moving its military infrastructure eastward towards Russia’s borders and increasing its military budgets, although they are already more than 20 times larger than those of Russia. We call for a return to the agreements that establish equal and indivisible security within the OSCE area, which some of Europe’s responsible politicians have spoken out in favour of recently, as was the case at the August meeting of President Putin of Russia and President Macron of France, for instance. We also need a reliable and open architecture in the Asia-Pacific region.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“This November marks another anniversary —20 years since the Charter for European Security and the Platform for Cooperative Security were adopted at the sixth Summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Those documents set out the principles of cooperation for every country and regional organization in the Euro-Atlantic area. Our Heads of States and Governments solemnly declared that no country should pursue its own security at the expense of another.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Like an overwhelming majority of the States Members of the United Nations, Russia rejects any attempt to resurrect the rules of the Monroe Doctrine era in Latin America and to effect regime change in sovereign States from outside without shrinking from military blackmail, unlawful coercion and blockades, as is the case with Cuba despite numerous United Nations resolutions. Next year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which was adopted on Russia’s initiative. To this day, however, a number of western States are still clinging to the old rules, ignoring the Declaration and other General Assembly resolutions on decolonization that pertain directly to them by retaining their control over former overseas territories.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“They turn a blind eye to blatant efforts to deny national minorities such rights and continue to condone the shameful existence of statelessness in Europe. Revisionist tendencies with regard to international law are increasingly evident in the sustained attempts to rewrite the history of the Second World War and to justify the growing manifestations of neo-Nazism and the vandalism of monuments to the liberators of Europe and the victims of the Holocaust. The strength of key principles of the United Nations Charter such as non-interference in the internal affairs of others and the inadmissibility of the use or threat of force is also being tested. Attempts are now being made to add Venezuela to the list of countries whose statehood has been violated before our eyes through aggression or foreign-inspired coups.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Together with the resolutions of the Security Council, our universal conventions are integral to international law. The West would like to replace them with its rules, too, as happened with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, whose Technical — and I stress the word “technical” — Secretariat was illegally granted so-called attributive functions as a result of unlawful manipulation and unscrupulous pressure, in direct violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the exclusive prerogatives of the Security Council. The game-playing continues around conventions that require all countries to uphold the linguistic, educational, religious and other rights of their national minorities. Even here our Western colleagues are guided by their rules.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Despite the universally binding Security Council resolutions on listing terrorist organizations, some countries have made it a rule to shield terrorists and even work with them on the ground, as we have seen in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, for instance. The United States is already saying openly that Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham is a quite moderate group that it can do business with. It also wants to get other members of the Security Council to go along with its unacceptable reasoning, as the recent discussions on the situation in Idlib in Syria showed. And the West also applies its own rules with regard to the Balkans, where it is openly working to undermine Security Council resolutions on the settlements in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The possibility of a two-State solution to the Palestinian issue, which is of key significance for satisfying the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and ensuring the security of Israel and the whole region, is under threat. When members of NATO bombed Libya in open violation of Security Council resolutions, it was clear that they too were guided by the logic of their so-called rules-based order. The result was the destruction of Libya’s statehood, while to this day the international community is grappling with the mess created by the pernicious legacy of NATO’s adventurism, especially for the countries of Africa. The hidden agendas continue in the counter-terrorism arena.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“There has been much talk about the withdrawal of the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for Iran’s nuclear programme, endorsed by Security Council resolution 2231 (2015). Not only has Washington repudiated its obligations under the resolution, it has started demanding that everyone else also play by the United States’ rules and sabotage its implementation. The United States has taken a hard line in its efforts to erode United Nations resolutions on the international legal foundations for a settlement in the Middle East. It has proposed that we await some so-called deal of the century while at the same time it takes unilateral decisions on Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“These revisionist rules are justified by manipulating the public consciousness, disseminating false information, creating double standards for human rights, suppressing unwelcome media outlets and banning journalism. The West also has apt pupils among its client States in post-Soviet territory. Collective work on an equal footing is being replaced by closed- format meetings held outside the legitimate multilateral frameworks, with approaches agreed on behind closed doors by a select few that are then declared to be multilateral agreements, accompanied by attempts to privatize the secretariats of international organizations and use them to advance non-consensus ideas in order to circumvent universal mechanisms. The attacks on international law are reaching alarming levels.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In its desire to achieve this, the West recalls international law ever more rarely, and ever more often and more insistently argues for a so-called rules-based order. The aim of the concept of this kind of order is obvious — it is to rewrite the norms of international law that no longer suit the West and replace them with rules that conform to their self-serving schemes, devised based on political expediency, while the West proclaims itself, and itself alone, the undisputed source of legitimacy. For instance, when it is advantageous, the right of peoples to self-determination is important, but when it is not, it is declared to be illegitimate.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The West is finding it difficult to come to terms with the fact that its centuries-long dominance of world affairs is disappearing. New centres of economic growth and political influence are springing up and becoming stronger, and without them it will be impossible to find sustainable solutions to the world’s problems, which we can address only through the firm foundation provided by the Charter of the United Nations and by balancing the interests of every State. The leading Western nations are trying to prevent the establishment of a polycentric world, restore their positions of privilege and impose standards of conduct on everyone else based on their own narrow interpretation of liberalism. To put it in a nutshell, they say, “We are liberals and can therefore do anything we want”.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“However, we have to admit that despite the fact that thanks to the United Nations we have succeeded in preventing a third world war, there are no fewer conflicts and enmity on the Earth, and new and terrible challenges have emerged — international terrorism, drug trafficking, climate change, illegal migration and a growing gap between rich and poor. Coping with these and many other challenges becomes harder and harder every year, and the international community is only growing ever more fragmented. We believe that the chief reason for this state of affairs is the unwillingness of the countries that declared themselves the victors in the Cold War to consider the legitimate interests of every other State and to accept the objective realities of the course of history.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“We are getting ever closer to the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, which was established thanks to victory in the Second World War and our recognition that a collective mechanism for maintaining international peace and security was essential. Unhappily, the events of the Cold War, which began soon after, prevented it from unleashing the full extent of its potential for good. The hope re-emerged almost 30 years ago with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the symbol of two irreconcilably opposed systems. It was the hope that perhaps at last we could turn the page on the pain of wars, cold and hot, and unite our efforts for the benefit of all humankind.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Let me quote just one, from President Harry Truman: “The responsibility of the great States is to serve and not to dominate the world”. I hope that a culture of mutually respectful dialogue will finally prevail. Russia will do everything it can to achieve that.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Cooperation, with a view to arriving at broadly acceptable solutions, was a priority built into the foundations of the United Nations from the very start. Today we must not fail to live up to the high goals and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and its dedication by the drafters to future generations. We should recall the art of negotiation in order to be worthy of their legacy. Many of today’s problems can be solved only on a basis of equality and mutual respect. Dictates and coercion, hallmarks of the era of colonialism, should once and for all be filed away in the archives or, better yet, consigned to the dustbin of history. Some great statesmen of the past have bequeathed to us many words of wisdom that have come to be aphorisms.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Together with us, our allies and partners in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Community, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) group and an overwhelming majority of other countries are advocating for the democratization of all aspects of international affairs and in the interests of all States, without exception. The West should also heed that voice, which is becoming more and more evident in the activities of the Group of 20. In today’s turbulent circumstances, the growing relevance of the United Nations — the only existing forum for overcoming differences and coordinating the activities of the international community — is an objective reality.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Russia has consistently promoted a philosophy of shared economic development, as enshrined in the Greater Eurasian Partnership initiative launched by President Vladimir Putin, a large-scale project open to all Asian and European States regardless of their membership in other integration associations. If consistently implemented, it could help to develop a the space for extensive economic cooperation in Eurasia. In the long term, it could lay the foundations for a renewed continental security architecture fit for the realities of the twenty-first century. Russia will continue to do its utmost to build a world based on law, truth and justice, and we are not alone in that aspiration.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“We intend to introduce a draft resolution to that effect in the First Committee. We also believe that it is important to start work on a convention on cybercrime, and we envisage holding the relevant discussions in the Third Committee. It is more essential than ever to seek mutually acceptable agreements and the mutual consideration of interests in the areas of global trade and economic relations, which today are being subjected to an unprecedented degree of politicization. The values of free trade are being held hostage to trade wars and other forms of unfair competition.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“If there are any bones of contention, we should come together around the negotiating table, engage in talks, present facts, heed the our partners’ counterarguments and seek a balance of interests. In the past couple of years, the debate on abuses in cyberspace has become more intense. I would like to draw attention to the fact that it was Russia that initiated discussion of international information-security issues at the United Nations 20 years ago. Against the backdrop of recent developments, it is becoming ever more urgent that under the auspices of the United Nations we should develop global rules for the responsible behaviour of States in cyberspace, including the principles of the non-use of force, non-interference in internal affairs and respect for State sovereignty.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“We are seeing increasingly negative trends in the activities of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) whereby the West is attempting to transform the Technical Secretariat into an instrument for punishing undesirable Governments, which risks compromising the OPCW’s independent professional status, the universality of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the exclusive prerogatives of the Security Council. Those and other problems in the area of non-proliferation were discussed in detail in the Security Council on 26 September (see S/PV.8362), convened at a very timely moment by the United States presidency. We firmly believe that any problems or concerns that arise in international relations should be addressed through a substantive dialogue.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The unilateral withdrawal by the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in violation of Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), and despite Iran’s full compliance with its obligations, came on top of the lack of progress in the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the establishment of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. We will do everything possible to preserve the deal approved by the Security Council.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“It is important to encourage that process, which should be based on continuing the rapprochement between the parties and on promoting the practical implementation of the important arrangements arrived at by Pyongyang and Seoul through the Security Council. We will continue to work to launch a multilateral process aimed at establishing a robust mechanism for peace and security in North-East Asia as soon as possible. The denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is among the tasks before the international community in the key security area of the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Regrettably, serious obstacles to that track continue to pile up.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Russia calls on the parties to engage in dialogue in accordance with the principles of Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) and will support a decision that would be acceptable for Serbia. In general, we urge that the Balkans not be once again transformed into an arena for confrontation or declared to be someone’s particular patrimony. The peoples of the Balkans must not be forced to face a false choice, and we must prevent new dividing lines from emerging in the region. We need to shape an architecture of equal and indivisible security elsewhere in the world, including the Asia-Pacific region. We welcome the positive developments on the Korean peninsula following the logic of the Russian-Chinese road map.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“However, instead of implementing the Minsk agreements and engaging in dialogue with Donetsk and Luhansk, Kyiv continues to harbour the illusion that it may be able to put occupying forces in Donbas with the support of the West and is increasingly threatening to resort to military options. The sponsors of the current Kyiv authorities must bring their clients to their senses, make them lift the blockade of Donbas and end discrimination against ethnic minorities throughout Ukraine. In Kosovo, the international military presence authorized by the Security Council is being transformed into a United States military base, and Kosovo armed forces are being created. The agreements between Belgrade and Pristina brokered by the European Union are not being implemented.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The growth of radical nationalism and neo-fascism in Ukraine, where criminals who fought under Waffen- SS banners have been declared heroes, is one of the main factors in the protracted intra-Ukrainian conflict. The only way to settle that conflict is to ensure the comprehensive and consistent implementation in good faith of the Minsk package of measures, approved unanimously by the Security Council in its resolution 2202 (2015). We support the activities of the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and are ready to provide its monitors with United Nations protection.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“This year marks the eightieth anniversary of the notorious Munich agreement crowning the criminal policy of appeasement of the Third Reich, a sad example of the catastrophic consequences that can result from national egotism, disregard for international law and attempts to solve problems at others’ expense. Regrettably, in a number of countries today not only has the vaccine against the Nazi plague been weakened, but a rising campaign to rewrite history and whitewash war criminals and their associates is emerging. In our view, the campaigns being waged in a number of countries to demolish monuments to the liberators of Europe are an outrage. We call on the Assembly to support the draft of this year’s versin of the annual resolution on the inadmissibility of glorification of the Nazis.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Today, as never before, the international community should consolidate its efforts with the aim of restarting talks on the basis of the relevant United Nations resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative. Russia will continue to do its utmost to facilitate the process, including within the Middle East Quartet and in cooperation with the League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Mutually acceptable agreements must ensure the peaceful and safe coexistence of the two States of Israel and Palestine. Here at the United Nations, which was created on the basis of lessons learned from the Second World War, we must all think about a future in which the repetition of past mistakes should have no place.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Its agenda includes the restoration of ruined infrastructure in order to facilitate the return of millions of refugees to their homes. Assistance in addressing those issues in the interest of all Syrians, without double standards, must become a priority for international efforts and the activities of United Nations agencies. Despite the complexity of the situation in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, we must not lose sight of the long-standing Palestinian question. A just and equitable solution to that issue is crucial to improving the situation throughout the Middle East. I want to warn against any unilateral approaches in this area or attempts to monopolize this peace process.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The failed attempt to effect regime change, which was orchestrated from outside and relied on extremists, nearly resulted in the country’s disintegration and the emergence of a terrorist caliphate in its place. Russia’s energetic action, in response to the request of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and supported by diplomatic efforts in the context of the Astana process, helped prevent that devastating scenario. The Syrian National Dialogue Congress, initiated by Russia, Iran and Turkey in Sochi in January, established the conditions for a political settlement in line with Security Council resolution 2254 (2015), and the basis for the intra-Syrian constitutional committee now being established in Geneva.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“We have already been through that, and we well remember how often spurious pretexts have been used to justify interventions and unleash wars, as was the case in Yugoslavia in 1999, Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011. The same methods are being used in Syria today. On 14 April, missile strikes were launched against Syria on a completely invented pretext, just hours before international inspectors were expected to arrive at the site of an incident that had been staged. This is a warning against any further provocations by terrorists and their patrons involving the use of chemical weapons, which would be unacceptable. The conflict in Syria has already lasted seven years.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Diplomacy and a culture of negotiation and compromise are increasingly replaced by dictates and unilateral extraterritorial restrictions effected without the consent of the Security Council. Such measures, which have already been applied to dozens of countries, are ineffective as well as illegal, as demonstrated by the more than half-century of the United States blockade of Cuba, which has been condemned by the entire international community. Once again, however, the lessons are not being drawn from history. The number of those who want to hand down verdicts without bothering with charges or trials is not getting any smaller. Today assumptions in the spirit of the notorious “highly likely” approach seem to provide sufficient grounds for some of our Western colleagues to make accusations against anyone they want to.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“It is telling that aggressive attacks on international institutions are being accompanied by attempts to privatize their secretariat structures and grant them the rights of intergovernmental bodies in the hope of manipulating them later. The shrinking space for constructive international cooperation, escalating confrontations, a growing overall lack of predictability, and a substantially higher risk of spontaneous conflicts all affect the work of this global Organization. The international community has to pay a high price for the parochial, self-serving ambitions of a small group of countries. The collective mechanisms for responding to common security challenges have stalled.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“At the same time, our Western colleagues continue to seek to replace the supremacy of law in world affairs with some kind of so-called rules-based order. Those rules themselves are invented depending on whatever is politically expedient and are a reflection of double standards. Baseless accusations of interference in the internal affairs of various countries are being made alongside overt attempts to undermine and topple democratically elected Governments. Efforts are being made to draw some countries into military alliances that are designed to further specific agendas against the will of the peoples of those countries, while other States are threatened with punishment for their free choice of partners and allies.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“To that end, they do not hesitate to use every possible method, including political blackmail, economic pressure and brute force. Such illegal actions devalue the international law that underpins the post-war world order. We hear statements trumpeted that not only call into question the legal validity of international treaties, but also prioritize self-serving unilateral approaches over decisions made within the United Nations. We are seeing an assault by belligerent revisionism on the modern system of international law. There have been attacks on the basic principles of the Middle East peace process, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear programme, commitments under the framework of the World Trade Organization, the multilateral Paris Agreement on Climate Change and many more.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The statements delivered during this session’s general debate confirm that international relations are now being conducted in a complex and controversial period of history. Today, we are all witnessing two opposing trends collide. On the one hand, we see the strengthening of polycentric principles of world order, the steady development of new centres of economic growth and peoples’ aspirations to preserve their sovereignty and choose development models that are consistent with their national, cultural and religious identities. On the other hand, we see the desire of a number of Western States to retain their self-proclaimed status as world leaders and slow the irreversible and objective process of establishing multipolarity.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)