🎙 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
@RusEmbMalta Press release:
📰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 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.
📰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
📰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
🎙 Russia's President Vladimir Putintook part in a SCO Heads of State Council Meeting in Astana (July 4, 2024)
💬 First of all, I want to greet everybody and, of course, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, following the accession of the Republic of Belarus as a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Russia gives high priority to partnership within the #SCO. We can state with satisfaction that this cooperation continues to develop consistently based on the principles of equality, consideration for each other’s interests, respect for the cultural and civilisational diversity, and cooperation in addressing important security issues.
<...>
Our countries are increasingly using national currencies for mutual settlements. For example, the share of national currencies in Russia's transactions with SCO members has exceeded 92 percent in the first four months of this year. I would like to reiterate Russia's proposal to establish a payment and settlement system within the SCO.
Regular meetings between our economic ministers, finance ministers and central bank governors are making a substantial contribution to the development of trade and investment relations in the SCO space.
<...>
Naturally, ensuring security within the Member States and along the external borders has always been a key focus of the SCO’s activities. Today, we have made decisions to upgrade the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure into a comprehensive centre that will address all security threats, as well as to establish an anti-drug centre in Dushanbe. The three-year cooperation programme we have approved will further strengthen our efforts to combat terrorism, separatism, and extremism.
Read in full
🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovanswers a question from the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin programme (Astana, July 4, 2024)
Question: How important is it that Belarus has joined us in the #SCO?
💬 Sergey Lavrov: Belarus is part of the Union State. We are interested in the Union State taking part in all international processes as a single front. I believe we are going in the right direction.
@RusEmbMalta press release
The President of Russia Vladimir Putin paid a two-day working visit to Astana to participate in a meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization Heads of States Council (July 3-4, 2024)
Vladimir Putin held a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the #SCO summit: with President of Mongolia Ukhnaagiin Khurelsükh, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif, President of Turkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of China Xi Jinping, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Acting President of Iran Mohammad Mokhber, and Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
Following its results, the participants signed the Astana Declaration and adopted and signed a number of other documents. They also held a meeting in the SCO Plus format.
In conclusion of his visit, Vladimir Putin answered media questions.
Read in full:
🎙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, 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
🗓 On May 20-21, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovtook 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.
🎙 President of Russia Vladimir Putin's speech at the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of State Council.
💬 President Putin: We believe it is important that all members of the association share their approaches to the situation in global politics, security, the social and economic spheres.
At the same time, our organisation is strongly committed to creating a truly just and multipolar world order, an order based on international law and common principles of mutually respectful cooperation between sovereign states with the central, coordinating role of the United Nations.
Our organisation plays an increasingly important role in international affairs and brings a substantial contribution to maintaining peace and stability, ensuring sustainable economic growth of its member states and developing ties between peoples.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues in the #SCO member states who have expressed their support for the Russian leadership in defending the constitutional order, lives and security of its citizens. We greatly appreciate this.
Russia has been in favour of strengthening cooperation between the member states in investment, banking and finance, as well as in industry, energy, transport and logistics, agriculture, telecommunications, digitalisation and high tech.
Counterterrorism, countering extremism and religious radicalism, curbing drug trafficking and other types of smuggling, combating militant formations must remain a priority of the SCO.
It is a matter of satisfaction that the authority and influence of our association continue to improve, and other countries and international structures show interest in its activity. They trust us and want to be friends and work together.
Read in full
🎙 President of Russia Vladimir Putin's speech at the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Heads of State Council.
💬 President Putin: We believe it is important that all members of the association share their approaches to the situation in global politics, security, the social and economic spheres.
At the same time, our organisation is strongly committed to creating a truly just and multipolar world order, an order based on international law and common principles of mutually respectful cooperation between sovereign states with the central, coordinating role of the United Nations.
Our organisation plays an increasingly important role in international affairs and brings a substantial contribution to maintaining peace and stability, ensuring sustainable economic growth of its member states and developing ties between peoples.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues in the #SCO member states who have expressed their support for the Russian leadership in defending the constitutional order, lives and security of its citizens. We greatly appreciate this.
Russia has been in favour of strengthening cooperation between the member states in investment, banking and finance, as well as in industry, energy, transport and logistics, agriculture, telecommunications, digitalisation and high tech.
Counterterrorism, countering extremism and religious radicalism, curbing drug trafficking and other types of smuggling, combating militant formations must remain a priority of the SCO.
It is a matter of satisfaction that the authority and influence of our association continue to improve, and other countries and international structures show interest in its activity. They trust us and want to be friends and work together.
Read in full
🗓 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attended the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Foreign Ministers Council, held in Panaji, state of Goa, India, on May 4 and 5.
The Foreign Ministers discussed the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the #SCO Heads of State Council (HSC), which is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on July 3 and 4. Among other things, they reviewed draft documents to be submitted to the heads of state.
🌐 The Ministers paid special attention to expanding the organisation’s membership, with Iran expected to be granted full SCO membership at the upcoming summit. Procedures to accept Belarus into the organisation have been launched and are well underway. Bahrain, Kuwait, Myanmar, the Maldives and the UAE are about to join SCO-led cooperation efforts as new dialogue partners.
The meeting included a detailed exchange of views on key regional and international matters, during which the participants were unanimous in stating the importance of deeper foreign policy coordination among SCO countries, primarily at the UN.
In the context of the combined efforts by SCO member states to counter terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and cross-border organised crime, the foreign ministers paid special attention to the situation in Afghanistan, considering the urgency of preventing the instability there from spilling over into the SCO space.
Read in full