#Announcement

🎙 Russia's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova will hold a weekly briefing on current foreign policy issues at approximately 11 am MSK (8 am GMT/ 10 am CEST/ 4 pm Beijing) on May 23.

For accreditation inquiries, please contact the Russian Foreign Ministry's Press Centre. Accredited journalists will receive detailed explanations on the technical aspects of submitting questions.

The Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman will answer media questions received by the call centre.

❗️ Accreditation is open until 10 am on May 22.

🗓 On May 20-21, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took part in the Foreign Ministers Council meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member-countries.

The participants focused on the organisation’s activities in the context of preparations for the meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council meeting in Astana on July 3-4. They also discussed draft documents to be presented for the leaders’ consideration.

The participants will reflect their coordinated approaches to the SCO’s further development and current global and regional issues in the Astana Declaration.

The admission of Belarus will be an important step towards strengthening the #SCO. The Ministers endorsed the relevant draft decisions of the Heads of State Council.

They also coordinated proposals of the SCO Foreign Ministers Council on comprehensive improvement of the organisation’s activities in the context of current geopolitical realities.

They adopted draft leadership statements and conceptual documents as a foundation for promoting cooperation in energy, transport, logistics and environmental protection.

During a detailed exchange of views on key regional and international issues, the Ministers discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip and the Middle East as a whole, and, in part, settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

They paid special attention to the SCO’s efforts to facilitate stabilization in Afghanistan, considering the importance of this factor for the security of the SCO space.

🤝 FM Lavrov also had a number of bilateral meetings.

🏞 "Call of the Soul" by Klera Singh.
“I called my show “Call of the Soul” because when I paint, I’m happy and it’s like meditation. Some paintings depict mighty mountains with lakes, while others depict thickets of flowers. It is more like a walk in nature, which beautifies and enriches our lives.”
📆 On June 5 at 6:00 p.m., an exhibition of paintings by Klera Singh, a former radio presenter who worked for 54 years at All India Radio and is the first chairman of the Delhi Association of Russian Compatriots, will open in the Russian House.
🔹 This is Klera Singh's sixth solo exhibition.
🔖 “My first personal exhibition took place in 1964. The next one, many years later, in 1998. Some of my paintings are in private collections. This exhibition that I am exhibiting now appeared quite recently - during the Covid epidemic,” she said.
🔗 The exhibition is dedicated to the 225th anniversary of the birth of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
✅ Free entry.
#exhibition #KleraSingh #RussianHouse

🎙 Deputy FM Sergey Ryabkov’s interview with PIR Center for Policy Studies (May 22, 2024)

Key points:

💬 The interest towards #BRICS has been steadily growing against the backdrop of large-scale geopolitical challenges and dramatic changes taking place in the world today.

• BRICS is seen as one of the pillars of a new, more equitable world order, which is designed to give all countries equal opportunities, to free the states of the Global South and Global East from the role of obedient suppliers of cheap labor and raw materials that the West imposes on them, and to consolidate the right of all nations for preserving their identity, self-determination, independent domestic and foreign policy, and protection of traditional values.

Russia and other BRICS countries fully share this stance and are in favor of an honest partnership that denies any exceptionalism.

• BRICS is an innovative format of interstate cooperation, bringing together different cultures and civilizations, countries with different economic and political systems <...>. Our common goal is a firm commitment to pursuing an independent domestic and foreign policy, defending sovereignty and our national interests.

• As part of Russia’s BRICS Chairmanship in 2024, we intend to continue developing strategic partnership on the basis of consensus and continuity, and work to enhance its role in world affairs. It's also reflected by the motto of the Russian BRICS Year “Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security”.

• The BRICS Summit in October 2024, will be the culmination of the Russian year in BRICS. We intend to continue the tradition of organizing on the sidelines meetings with developing countries. That cooperation within the BRICS framework and its mechanisms of interaction with like-minded nations will enable the voice of the Global South to sound louder and clearer in the international arena, as well as to defend our national interests and the right to choose our own path of development.

Read in full

#BRICS2024

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to media questions, (Minsk, May 24, 2024)

❓ Question: How would you comment on Mike Johnson’s statement about the use of US-supplied weapons to strike Russia?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: They said for a long time that they were not supporting it. They also said they did not allow it and advised [Ukraine] against using it. But in fact, they are waging war against us. American weapons have already been used to strike various targets outside the conflict zone.

Washington is trying to make reassuring statements for the local public or for NATO members, to pretend the decision has not yet been made. It is a trick. We are certain that American and other Western-supplied weapons are being used to strike targets on Russian territory, primarily civilian infrastructure and residential areas. They are responsible for what these weapons have done.

❓ Question: What is your assessment of the current state of relations between Russia and Belarus within the Union State?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: The Union State is the most advanced form of integration in the post-Soviet countries as well as in other regions.