🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks, via videoconference, at a briefing session with permanent members of the Security Council (January 20, 2025)

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Indeed, since yesterday, the global media and social networks have been flooded with news from Washington, coinciding with the arrival of Trump and his team in the capital for today’s inauguration, set to take place at 8:00 pm Moscow Time. While the details are widely reported, speculation, analytical assessments, and forecasts are also intensifying regarding how this event may influence various conflicts across different regions of the world.

There are numerous conflicts, including those in the Middle East, where the situation remains fragile. Despite the signing of an agreement between Israel and Hamas, there are no convincing signs of lasting stability. On the one side, warnings are voiced that Israel is violating the agreements, while Israel accuses Hamas of not fully adhering to the commitments they made.

Of course, the Palestine problem beyond the Gaza Strip does not go anywhere. We can recall that Donald Trump, during his first term, promoted a concept that was totally different from the Arab Peace Initiative and implied that relations between Israel and all Arabs be normalised…

❗️ Yemen, Libya, and, of course, Syria after the events that took place a month ago, all this makes the Middle East and the Near East a very troubled region. Let us not forget Afghanistan, where the Americans are also trying to restore their presence to some extent, using neighbouring countries for this and thinking about returning their military infrastructure there.

I am saying all this in terms of the policies carried out by the previous administration. So, of course, everyone is trying to guess what official approaches the Trump administration will promote. Unofficially, members of his team and he, himself, have repeatedly spoken out about the Middle East and the Ukraine crisis, which Trump considers a priority area of his foreign policy activity with an eye to resolving it, making it clear that they understand the Russian position in some of its aspects: for example, regarding the unacceptability of Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Alliance.

However, let me repeat that all of these are preliminary statements, more like “test runs,” made on the eve of the new President’s official inauguration and the approval of members of his administration.

This is why a lot depends on the United States, first of all, because the Europeans and US Asian allies, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand are completely guided by the position of the White House, and in this sense, they are waiting to see what its final position will be. Of course, developing countries are waiting, too – countries in the regions where the United States can play a positive role or carry on the previous administration’s course to maintain conflict potential in the hope of benefitting from the ongoing crises. At least, this was the United States’ course for many years under various administrations.

Therefore, guessing is a thankless job.

We are open to contacts.

We have repeatedly confirmed this in response to relevant questions, with the understanding that we will have serious proposals from those of our colleagues who once suspended, or even broke off, relations with the Russian Federation.