🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’sarticle for Russia in Global Affairs magazine «The UN must recover its central role in coordinating actions by nations»(October 4, 2024)
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💬 The 79th Session of the UN General Assembly has recently completed the general debate, where President Vladimir Putin tasked me to represent the Russian Federation.
Does the Pact for the Future have a future?
Held as usual in the last week of September, the UN’s High-Level Week included the so-called Summit of the Future. The idea to convene it came from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and Russia has met this idea with understanding considering that the UN is sinking deeper and deeper into a crisis, and something has to be done about it. Russian diplomats joined efforts to prepare this meeting and acted in a sincere and honest way, even if we did not have any illusions in this regard. In fact, there were quite a few major UN events in the past which failed to go beyond bombastic declarations that were forgotten soon after their adoption.
<...>
In 2015, the UN Summit on Sustainable Development adopted grand plans to fight poverty and inequality. In the end, they turned out to be empty promises in the face of the unwillingness of the Western countries to give up their neo-colonial practices of siphoning off the riches of the world for their own benefit. <...>
The current UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, just like Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon before him, has put forward an initiative under the slogan of giving a new start and resetting global cooperation.
This is a wonderful idea. Who could disagree?
But what global cooperation is there to talk about, when the West has trampled all those unshakeable values of globalisation we have been hearing about from everywhere for so many years. These perorations were designed to convince us that they would give everyone equal access to the goods of modern civilisation. Where is the inviolability of property, the presumption of innocence, freedom of expression, access to information, fair market competition under fair and constant rules?
How can we discuss global cooperation when the Western countries have unleashed a real war of sanctions against more than half, if not the majority, of the countries of the world, and the US dollar has been crudely turned into a weapon against undesirable countries? <...>
Key talking points:
• It is not too late to give the UN a new lease on life.
• It has gotten to the point where the West wants to turn the UN into an instrument for attaining itself-seeking goals.
• [The West is] hindering the badly needed change in the system of forming the UN Secretariat, where the key posts have been seized and are “inherited” by representatives of the Western minority.
• There must be an honest discussion by all UN member states, and not like a process in which the Pact for the Future was prepared – without a single plenary session of talks attended by all countries.
• Establishing a space of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia is crucial amid the all-encompassing processes unfolding in the macro-region.
• Our initiative is based on the understanding of the need for states and multilateral organisations of the Eurasian region to assume responsibility for ensuring their own security under the ‘Eurasian solutions to Eurasian problems’ formula.
***
❗️ Today, the international community once again faces massive challenges, just like during World War II, which require united efforts rather than confrontation and desire of global dominance. Russia will always advocate collective efforts, truth and the rule of law, peace and cooperation in the interests of reviving the ideals set forth by the UN’s founding fathers.
🇺🇳 Working for the honest balance of the legitimate national interests of all countries, we can bring to life the purpose of the #UN as stated in its Charter: “To be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.”
⚡️Statement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization regarding the Situation around the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (#SCO) express serious concern over the developments in the Middle East and the military strikes on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The SCO Member States consider the use of force as unacceptable and advocate for the resolution of existing differences exclusively by peaceful means, based on dialogue, mutual respect, and taking into account the legitimate interests of all parties, in accordance with the norms of the international law and the principles of the UN Charter.
The SCO Member States underscore the need to ensure sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Iran, and call on all parties to exercise restraint and to refrain from actions that could aggravate the situation.
The SCO Member States strongly urge the United Nations and the UN Security Council to take immediate measures to counteract the undermining of international peace and security.
The SCO Member States express sincere condolences to the families of those murdered as a result of the attack and declare their solidarity with and support for the Government and the people of Iran.
2 March, 2026
📰Article by Russia' Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ‘The Helsinki Act’s 50th anniversary: Expectations, reality, and future’
Published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta on August 1, 2025
✍️ Marking the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and WWII in 2025 serves as an occasion for us to recall and reaffirm the importance of peace which came at such a high cost for our forefathers. We must also be mindful of how fragile this peace architecture is. In fact, its integrity hinges upon the ability of countries and their people to engage in coordinated collective action.
Back in 1945, the year of Victory, major powers realised the need to overcome their differences for the sake of the humankind as a whole. This paved the way for establishing the United Nations as one of the key derivatives of this vision. In fact, the purposes and principles set out in the UN Charter remain relevant to this day and are in step with the reality of an emerging multipolar world order.
But there is another international event which happened precisely 50 years ago and is worth commemorating. This is when the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was signed. It became a landmark event in consolidating the post-war architecture based on the framework resulting from the Yalta and Potsdam conferences.
☝️ Those camping on unfriendly positions towards Russia seek to diminish and sweep under the carpet the fact that our country, which was the USSR at that time, played a leading role in the Helsinki process, while also distorting the objectives the Soviet leaders were pursuing. We are facing groundless and unappealing accusations of undermining the European security framework, and politicians in the EU and NATO have made no secret of their intention to re-write the outcomes of WWII and do not shy away from concocting barbaric fakes for that purpose.
Key points:
• Western countries have breached all the OSCE agreements on arms control and confidence-building measures. Russia has appealed to the conscience of Western elites more than once, inviting them to coordinate reliable security guarantees based on fundamental commitment adopted within the OSCE.
• Europe is deeply immersed in Russophobia, and its militarisation is essentially becoming uncontrollable. There are more than enough facts of this. <...> This brings historical events to mind: with their current leaders, modern Germany and the rest of Europe are transforming into a Fourth Reich.
• In recent years, the West has openly shown absolute contempt for the OSCE’s principles & embarked on the path of suppressing rivals through economic pressure, including unlawful unilateral measures against Russia, Belarus and any other country that strives to defend its legitimate national interests. The OSCE marked a decisive end to practical cooperation between the East and the West.
• The scale of accumulated OSCE problems is immense. Burdened by them, the Organisation has been side-lined in international affairs. The Vienna platform no longer offers space for cooperation or security. The architects of the Helsinki Final Act did not envisage such a future for the pan-European process. It is high time to consider whether such an Organisation has any reason to persist.
• Today, the ideas of sovereign equality of states and their mutually respectful dialogue – strangled in the OSCE – are being realised through multilateral cooperation projects within the CSTO, the CIS, #SCO, and other regional frameworks across Eurasia.
• As a strategic objective, Russia envisions forming a flexible and resilient architecture of equal & indivisible security and cooperation in Eurasia, capable of addressing contemporary challenges.
• There will be no future for the OSCE if NATO and EU countries do away with the consensus rule and continue using this platform with its headquarters in Vienna as their private mouthpiece for spreading shameless propaganda campaigns to demonise Russia & any other parties who break ranks, while backing their underlings in Kiev.
Read in full
⚡️Statement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization regarding the Situation around the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (#SCO) express serious concern over the developments in the Middle East and the military strikes on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The SCO Member States consider the use of force as unacceptable and advocate for the resolution of existing differences exclusively by peaceful means, based on dialogue, mutual respect, and taking into account the legitimate interests of all parties, in accordance with the norms of the international law and the principles of the UN Charter.
The SCO Member States underscore the need to ensure sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Iran, and call on all parties to exercise restraint and to refrain from actions that could aggravate the situation.
The SCO Member States strongly urge the United Nations and the UN Security Council to take immediate measures to counteract the undermining of international peace and security.
The SCO Member States express sincere condolences to the families of those murdered as a result of the attack and declare their solidarity with and support for the Government and the people of Iran.
2 March, 2026
🛬 Președintele Rusiei, Vladimir Putin, în vizita la capitala Kazahstanului, Astana, pentru a participa la o reuniune a Consiliului șefilor de stat ai Organizației de Cooperare de la Shanghai (#SCO).
📍3 iulie 2024
📰Article by Russia' Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ‘The Helsinki Act’s 50th anniversary: Expectations, reality, and future’
Published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta on August 1, 2025
✍️ Marking the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and WWII in 2025 serves as an occasion for us to recall and reaffirm the importance of peace which came at such a high cost for our forefathers. We must also be mindful of how fragile this peace architecture is. In fact, its integrity hinges upon the ability of countries and their people to engage in coordinated collective action.
Back in 1945, the year of Victory, major powers realised the need to overcome their differences for the sake of the humankind as a whole. This paved the way for establishing the United Nations as one of the key derivatives of this vision. In fact, the purposes and principles set out in the UN Charter remain relevant to this day and are in step with the reality of an emerging multipolar world order.
But there is another international event which happened precisely 50 years ago and is worth commemorating. This is when the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was signed. It became a landmark event in consolidating the post-war architecture based on the framework resulting from the Yalta and Potsdam conferences.
☝️ Those camping on unfriendly positions towards Russia seek to diminish and sweep under the carpet the fact that our country, which was the USSR at that time, played a leading role in the Helsinki process, while also distorting the objectives the Soviet leaders were pursuing. We are facing groundless and unappealing accusations of undermining the European security framework, and politicians in the EU and NATO have made no secret of their intention to re-write the outcomes of WWII and do not shy away from concocting barbaric fakes for that purpose.
Key points:
• Western countries have breached all the OSCE agreements on arms control and confidence-building measures. Russia has appealed to the conscience of Western elites more than once, inviting them to coordinate reliable security guarantees based on fundamental commitment adopted within the OSCE.
• Europe is deeply immersed in Russophobia, and its militarisation is essentially becoming uncontrollable. There are more than enough facts of this. <...> This brings historical events to mind: with their current leaders, modern Germany and the rest of Europe are transforming into a Fourth Reich.
• In recent years, the West has openly shown absolute contempt for the OSCE’s principles & embarked on the path of suppressing rivals through economic pressure, including unlawful unilateral measures against Russia, Belarus and any other country that strives to defend its legitimate national interests. The OSCE marked a decisive end to practical cooperation between the East and the West.
• The scale of accumulated OSCE problems is immense. Burdened by them, the Organisation has been side-lined in international affairs. The Vienna platform no longer offers space for cooperation or security. The architects of the Helsinki Final Act did not envisage such a future for the pan-European process. It is high time to consider whether such an Organisation has any reason to persist.
• Today, the ideas of sovereign equality of states and their mutually respectful dialogue – strangled in the OSCE – are being realised through multilateral cooperation projects within the CSTO, the CIS, #SCO, and other regional frameworks across Eurasia.
• As a strategic objective, Russia envisions forming a flexible and resilient architecture of equal & indivisible security and cooperation in Eurasia, capable of addressing contemporary challenges.
• There will be no future for the OSCE if NATO and EU countries do away with the consensus rule and continue using this platform with its headquarters in Vienna as their private mouthpiece for spreading shameless propaganda campaigns to demonise Russia & any other parties who break ranks, while backing their underlings in Kiev.
Read in full
⚡️Statement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization regarding the Situation around the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (#SCO) express serious concern over the developments in the Middle East and the military strikes on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The SCO Member States consider the use of force as unacceptable and advocate for the resolution of existing differences exclusively by peaceful means, based on dialogue, mutual respect, and taking into account the legitimate interests of all parties, in accordance with the norms of the international law and the principles of the UN Charter.
The SCO Member States underscore the need to ensure sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Iran, and call on all parties to exercise restraint and to refrain from actions that could aggravate the situation.
The SCO Member States strongly urge the United Nations and the UN Security Council to take immediate measures to counteract the undermining of international peace and security.
The SCO Member States express sincere condolences to the families of those murdered as a result of the attack and declare their solidarity with and support for the Government and the people of Iran.
2 March, 2026
🎙Remarks by President of Russia Vladimir Putin at SCO Plus meeting(Tianjin, September 1)
💬 President Putin: President Xi Jinping, colleagues.
It is a pleasure to extend a warm welcome to all participants of today’s meeting in the SCO Plus format. This is not our first gathering in such an expanded format, bringing together the Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, leaders of observer states and SCO dialogue partners, honoured guests invited by the current chair, and the heads of leading international organisations.
This clearly reflects the growing interest and attention of the international community in the multifaceted work of the #SCO. More and more countries are seeking open and equal dialogue.
In addition to its ten full members, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation also engages two observer states – Mongolia and Afghanistan – as well as 15 dialogue partners.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith on his country’s unanimous admission as a partner of the SCO, as decided by the Heads of State Council.
Applications from more than a dozen other countries seeking observer or dialogue partner status are currently under consideration. <...>
Since its founding in 2001, the SCO has actively worked to promote peace, security, trust, and cooperation across our common Eurasian continent. In this context, we have carefully considered the proposals put forward by President Xi Jinping for establishing a more effective and functional system of global governance. Such efforts are particularly relevant at a time when certain countries continue to pursue dictatorial practices in international affairs.
Russia supports President Xi Jinping’s initiative and is eager to engage in a substantive discussion of the proposals presented by our Chinese friends.
It seems that the SCO is capable of playing a leading role in shaping a more just and equitable system of global governance. Such a system should be based on the primacy of international law and the core provisions of the UN Charter, be truly balanced, take into account the interests of the widest possible range of countries, and ensure opportunities for their sustainable development and security.
The SCO is also actively advancing trade, economic, investment, and financial cooperation. It is noteworthy that, despite continuing challenges in the global economy, the combined GDP of the SCO member states grew by more than five percent in 2024, surpassing global averages. Industrial output rose by 4.6%. Cooperation is steadily deepening in such sectors as energy, finance, agriculture and food security, infrastructure, high technology, innovation, and transport.
It is equally important that the SCO participants consistently uphold historical and cultural values as well as civilisational diversity. On this basis, people-to-people ties are expanding, and cooperation in science and education, healthcare, and sports continues to strengthen. <...>
We would also like to invite delegations from all your countries to take part in the St Petersburg International Forum of United Cultures, which opens next week, as well as the Russia – a Sports Power forum, scheduled to take place this November in Samara.
🤝 I am confident that today’s meeting will be fruitful, strengthen the bonds of friendship among all the countries represented here, and help advance wide-ranging cooperation across many spheres.
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🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answers to questions from Belarus 1 television channel (June 30, 2024)
❓ Question: President Alexander Lukashenko emphasised that the relationship between Belarus and Russia serves as an example for other countries. In your opinion, where is Belarus’s support for Russia most evident right now? Would you like to see even more support?
💬 Sergey Lavrov: We don’t frame the question as where Belarus can support Russia. Our alliance and strategic partnership are based on reciprocity. All decisions made by the presidents regarding the development of the Union State and its foreign policy activities are founded on the principle of reciprocity and a balance of interests.
Everything we do is mutually beneficial. This principle ensures the success of the allied relations between Russia and the Republic of Belarus across all areas of our cooperation.
❓ Question: Are there any plans for personal meetings between President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko in the near future?
💬 Sergey Lavrov: There are such plans.
❓ Question: Do you mean the SCO or some other events?
💬 Sergey Lavrov: They will definitely meet at the #SCO Summit.
http://tiny.cc/12uxyz
🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions following the SCO Foreign Ministers Council meeting (Astana, May 21, 2024)
Key talking points:
▪️ At a group meeting of the heads of delegations with President of Kazakhstan and during the Ministerial Council meeting (https://t.me/MFARussia/20291), we expressed our deepest condolences and solidarity with the Iranian people, as well as confidence that Tehran will continue its foreign policy, including with regard to its active participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
• The #SCO remains one of the supporting pillars of the multipolar world order. It is well positioned to become a driving force behind transforming Eurasia into a single continental space of peace, stability, mutual trust and progress.
• Security can be reliably ensured only by the Eurasian countries themselves, without the intervention of extra-regional forces. We observe such attempts on the part of the United States, the European Union and NATO, which strive to assume responsibility for everything that happens in the region.
• We are all aware of the importance of intensifying the work of the SCO, considering its weight and role in Eurasia, and its partners, including the OSCE, the CIS, the EAEU, and ASEAN.
• Developing common approaches to ensuring Eurasian security and cooperation by the countries of this continent is a crucial goal. We underscored that the SCO could well catalyse these processes with the involvement of other partners in the region.
• The SCO has two observers and 14 dialogue partners. Recently, Laos and Algeria have applied for partner status. We discussed improving the efficiency of interaction with these countries within the SCO Plus format.
🇧🇾 Starting from the July summit, Belarus will become a full-fledged SCO member. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will take part in all events of the Astana summit without exception. The Belarusian minister attended our discussion.
🇲🇳 Mongolia is the obvious next candidate for SCO membership.
Read in full: http://tiny.cc/wi87yz
⚡️Statement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization regarding the Situation around the Islamic Republic of Iran
The Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (#SCO) express serious concern over the developments in the Middle East and the military strikes on the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The SCO Member States consider the use of force as unacceptable and advocate for the resolution of existing differences exclusively by peaceful means, based on dialogue, mutual respect, and taking into account the legitimate interests of all parties, in accordance with the norms of the international law and the principles of the UN Charter.
The SCO Member States underscore the need to ensure sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Iran, and call on all parties to exercise restraint and to refrain from actions that could aggravate the situation.
The SCO Member States strongly urge the United Nations and the UN Security Council to take immediate measures to counteract the undermining of international peace and security.
The SCO Member States express sincere condolences to the families of those murdered as a result of the attack and declare their solidarity with and support for the Government and the people of Iran.
2 March, 2026
📰Article by Russia' Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ‘The Helsinki Act’s 50th anniversary: Expectations, reality, and future’
Published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta on August 1, 2025
✍️ Marking the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and WWII in 2025 serves as an occasion for us to recall and reaffirm the importance of peace which came at such a high cost for our forefathers. We must also be mindful of how fragile this peace architecture is. In fact, its integrity hinges upon the ability of countries and their people to engage in coordinated collective action.
Back in 1945, the year of Victory, major powers realised the need to overcome their differences for the sake of the humankind as a whole. This paved the way for establishing the United Nations as one of the key derivatives of this vision. In fact, the purposes and principles set out in the UN Charter remain relevant to this day and are in step with the reality of an emerging multipolar world order.
But there is another international event which happened precisely 50 years ago and is worth commemorating. This is when the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was signed. It became a landmark event in consolidating the post-war architecture based on the framework resulting from the Yalta and Potsdam conferences.
☝️ Those camping on unfriendly positions towards Russia seek to diminish and sweep under the carpet the fact that our country, which was the USSR at that time, played a leading role in the Helsinki process, while also distorting the objectives the Soviet leaders were pursuing. We are facing groundless and unappealing accusations of undermining the European security framework, and politicians in the EU and NATO have made no secret of their intention to re-write the outcomes of WWII and do not shy away from concocting barbaric fakes for that purpose.
Key points:
• Western countries have breached all the OSCE agreements on arms control and confidence-building measures. Russia has appealed to the conscience of Western elites more than once, inviting them to coordinate reliable security guarantees based on fundamental commitment adopted within the OSCE.
• Europe is deeply immersed in Russophobia, and its militarisation is essentially becoming uncontrollable. There are more than enough facts of this. <...> This brings historical events to mind: with their current leaders, modern Germany and the rest of Europe are transforming into a Fourth Reich.
• In recent years, the West has openly shown absolute contempt for the OSCE’s principles & embarked on the path of suppressing rivals through economic pressure, including unlawful unilateral measures against Russia, Belarus and any other country that strives to defend its legitimate national interests. The OSCE marked a decisive end to practical cooperation between the East and the West.
• The scale of accumulated OSCE problems is immense. Burdened by them, the Organisation has been side-lined in international affairs. The Vienna platform no longer offers space for cooperation or security. The architects of the Helsinki Final Act did not envisage such a future for the pan-European process. It is high time to consider whether such an Organisation has any reason to persist.
• Today, the ideas of sovereign equality of states and their mutually respectful dialogue – strangled in the OSCE – are being realised through multilateral cooperation projects within the CSTO, the CIS, #SCO, and other regional frameworks across Eurasia.
• As a strategic objective, Russia envisions forming a flexible and resilient architecture of equal & indivisible security and cooperation in Eurasia, capable of addressing contemporary challenges.
• There will be no future for the OSCE if NATO and EU countries do away with the consensus rule and continue using this platform with its headquarters in Vienna as their private mouthpiece for spreading shameless propaganda campaigns to demonise Russia & any other parties who break ranks, while backing their underlings in Kiev.
Read in full