🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions following the meeting of Foreign Ministers from BRICS and Global South and Global East countries (Nizhny Novgorod, June 11, 2024)

💬 We have just completed our two-day programme. Yesterday, we worked with the #BRICS countries, and continued our discussions today with the invited countries which have yet to join BRICS. They expressed their firm commitment to forging closer ties with this association. Apart from the ten BRICS countries, another 12 nations of the Global Majority representing Asia, Africa and Latin America joined us today.

We discussed the most pressing and relevant international issues and challenges which all countries face today, as well as the present-day international environment and the role the Global Majority plays in shaping the global agenda.

During the BRICS segment of our meeting and today, in the presence of the invited countries, all delegations spoke out in favour of reforming the existing global governance framework by focusing on enabling the Global South to play a bigger role in it. We noted the need to undertake collective efforts in order to achieve the sustainable development goals, ensure security and foster economic growth.

Most of the delegations emphasised the destructive nature of protectionism in trade. The US and its allies have been sticking to this destructive policy.

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❗️ All meeting participants without exception paid special attention to the developments in the Gaza Strip where the death toll stands at 37,000, while about 100,000 people were wounded. The military operation continues there, resulting in more and more casualties among innocent people.

We emphasised that there is no alternative to undertaking consistent efforts designed to support the emergence of a multipolar world order based on the sovereign equality of states as set forth in the UN Charter, as well as an equitable interstate dialogue free from any hidden agendas and aimed at coming up with collective solutions for addressing the objectives and issues the world faces today.

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Following the BRICS meeting held yesterday, we have adopted an in-depth and explicit Joint Statement, which reflects the group countries’ stands on current international issues in the spirit of the assessments I have mentioned here.

🤝 It is highly satisfying that our work in the expanded format went smoothly. All participants tried to reach consensus even on the most complicated issues reflected in the text.

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🖋 Article «The humanity should get rid of the colonial system heritage. Colonial powers’ time is up» by Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russian Federation, Chairman of the United Russia Party

Key points:

• There is brazen interference in the affairs of independent states, which, unfortunately, still continues in various forms. Despite humanity’s persistent efforts to eradicate neocolonialism, the Western world vehemently resists it.

• The former colonial powers persist in exploiting dependent countries, enhancing their own comfort through the humiliation and oppression of others – albeit employing more sophisticated tools and methods.

• According to experts (American experts, for all their bias), between 1946 and 2000, the United States interfered in elections in other countries more than 80 times. Since 1945, there have been more than 50 attempted coups and military interventions. Of the 174 cases of restrictive measures applied in the 20th century, the United States was responsible for 109. <…> In fact, America has become a global sanctions neo-metropolis.

• In order to preserve its geopolitical presence in various parts of the world, the West relies on the so-called debt neo-colonialism . <…> The neo-colonial powers are using financial institutions under their control and extensively exploiting the difficult socioeconomic situation in many countries of the Global South to induce them to borrow at interest rates that are higher than those offered to the so-called golden billion countries.

• Neo-metropolitan powers have also been targeting certain countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa with their disruptive efforts in order to control their natural wealth, including critical minerals. They focus on gaining unrestricted access to lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and rear earth deposits they need for transitioning to a low-carbon economy.

❗️ The fight against neocolonialism is not an eternal confrontation for the sake of confrontation itself. It is primarily a progressive movement of states towards civilisational sovereignty, which is crucial in avoiding degradation and devastation in the 21st century. <…> Only fully sovereign countries that have independence in domestic and foreign affairs will be able to effectively counteract the deliberate efforts of the former metropolises to impose unequal economic and political deals on them.

• Investigation of colonial crimes that do not have a statute of limitations should be placed at the forefront of this activity. It is necessary to consider the creation of a single public database (register) of crimes of the colonial period, as well as modern neocolonial practices, at the UN, and work out a scale to evaluate the damage caused by war crimes committed on their territory.

• Neo-metropoles should be hit where it hurts the most, in their wallets, which they are filling largely by exploiting the rest of the world. We believe that the payment of compensations to the victims of neocolonial practices should be based on clear, legally considered and substantiated evidence. Political and diplomatic assessments must be complemented with a legal evaluation of their actions.

• We wish the best of luck to our African and Latin American colleagues. Their success, including in establishing an anticolonial tribunal (akin to the Nuremberg Trials), will be a major step towards depriving the Global North of its domination and towards building a fair multipolar world order.

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