Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a meeting of RIC foreign ministers held via videoconference, Moscow, November 26, 2021
Colleagues, friends,
I would like to greet you and express my gratitude to the Indian chairmanship for hosting the meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, India and China, which, for objective reasons, is being held via videoconference. Today’s exchange of views on the pressing items on the international agenda is critically important amid growing turbulence at the global and regional levels.
Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the international relations system is faced with major challenges in the economy and social sphere. The virus spurred the global governance crisis and the protectionist and isolationist sentiment, and became a serious test of strength for states and multilateral associations.
RIC remains a crucial part of global and regional politics, especially in matters of ensuring security and strengthening state-to-state relations in the Asia-Pacific region and encouraging broad-based economic integration in Eurasia.
The promotion of interaction within our troika is fundamental to creating a fairer and more democratic multipolar order with the UN at its core, and it contributes to the establishment in the international arena of universal values, such as multilateralism, equality and the rule of law. We are united by opposition to trade protectionism, the illegal imposition of politically motivated unilateral sanctions, and even more so the use of force in international affairs. We work as a team on an extensive UN agenda and within the G20, BRICS and the SCO. We support ASEAN centrality-based cooperation mechanisms in the Asia-Pacific region as well.
Friends,
I am ready and willing to discuss all of the above issues with you today. I hope that our engaged dialogue will help unlock more fully the enormous and truly strategic potential of the RIC format.