Post #2235

🇷🇺Russia's Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large for the G20, APEC and BEP Marat Berdyev interview with the Interfax News Agency, February 10, 2025 Question: What ideas and initiatives are we bringing to the upcoming G20 meeting? Answer: The G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Johannesburg, scheduled for February 20-21, with the participation of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, will be the first G20 ministerial-level meeting of the year. We expect it to set a positive tone for the collective work of the forum under the leadership of our South African friends. Amid growing global tensions, this platform will provide an opportunity for an honest and productive exchange of views, focusing on the current international situation and macroeconomic realities. As tradition dictates, the Russian delegation will be headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov. We will share with our G20 colleagues our view on the root causes of global strategic instability, as well as the increasing risks to the integrity and effective functioning of international markets, supply chains, and business operation mechanisms. It is necessary to acknowledge that the West’s policy of confrontation with emerging power centers, using a broad array of "hybrid warfare" tactics and neocolonial practices, has led to a critical level of confrontation. This destructive scenario threatens the fragmentation of the global economic system and the serious erosion of decades-long achievements in development. In the 80th anniversary year of the victory in the Great Patriotic War and the founding of the United Nations, we will draw special attention to the central role of the United Nations and its Charter in resolving disputes, ensuring coordinated responses to challenges and threats, and the need for a united fight against the glorification of Nazism and neo-Nazism. We aim to emphasize the fundamental importance of the principles of sovereign equality of states and indivisible security for all, in the context of maintaining peace and stability. Another crucial issue for us, especially in light of the first-ever African "watch" of the G20, is Russia’s commitment to strengthening the positions of the Global South countries in key decision-making mechanisms in the interest of multipolarity. Relevant promises were made during the G20’s first summit in Washington in 2008, and some progress in this direction has been observed; however, it has been consistently hindered by both the United States and the European Union. We will highlight our efforts to promote international cooperation formats and integration initiatives with a unifying agenda, such as BRICS, the EAEU, and the flagship initiative of President Vladimir Putin to form a Greater Eurasian Partnership.