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📅 On May 4 and 5, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be taking part in the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Foreign Ministers’ Council (#SCO FMC) in Panaji, Republic of India. 🇷🇺🇮🇳 This meeting will open the final stage in the preparations for the SCO Summit under India’s presidency, which is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on July 3 and 4. <...> Russia praises its Indian partners for their proactive efforts and is committed to effectively enabling them to deliver on their agenda. The Foreign Ministers will focus on preparing the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council (HSC). Among other things, they will discuss draft documents to be submitted to the heads of state. The Foreign Ministers will exchange views on key regional and international matters with a focus on foreign policy coordination with the aim of strengthening the UN’s central coordinating role in reliably ensuring global security and sustainable economic development. During the SCO FMC meeting, participants will pay special attention to expanding the ranks of the organisation. The Ministers will approve the SCO HSC draft resolution granting membership status to Iran and will discuss the application by Belarus asking if ways can be found to accelerate the procedures to accept it into the organisation. 🤝 Russia stands ready to work closely with all its partners in order to prepare a meaningful agenda and ensure the success of the upcoming SCO Summit in New Delhi, as well as further step-up constructive cooperation within the organisation. Read in full

Active discussion on some important topics #SCO

🎙 Excerpt from the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin's speech during a meeting with chairmen of parliaments of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation Member States (December 9, 2024) 💬Vladimir Putin: It is indeed commendable that interactions are facilitated through civil society and religious organisations. However, it is essential that all these efforts are bolstered by members of parliament, who engage directly with the people, safeguarding the interests of their electorate. One of the key elements of the Assembly's work has been and continues to be the oversight of elections in member countries. 🌐 The CSTO Parliamentary Assembly has deservedly attained broad international acclaim and has forged substantial cooperation with relevant international bodies, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (#SCO), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (#ASEAN), and numerous countries in Latin America and Africa. Read in full

🎙Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko’s interview to Izvestiya news agency (excerpt): Question: The term "Russia's pivot to the East" appeared many years ago, but it was the last year that showed that "the pivot to the East" is not a matter of choice, but a necessity. What specific steps have been taken by Russia to strengthen ties with our Eastern partners? Answer: From the Foreign Ministry's point of view, we see no reason to say that it is the "pivot to the East." Our country has always been and remains an integral part of Asia. We are consistently working to ensure our interests in this part of the world. Cooperation with the countries of the region is developing in a wide range of areas. These are trade, economic and investment ties, joint infrastructure projects, interaction in the field of energy and food supplies. Russian experience in countering new challenges and threats, including fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, and transnational crime is in demand by our Asian partners. Russia is also a high foreign policy priority for the regional states in terms of strengthening their defense potentials. Humanitarian aspects - educational exchanges, tourism, healthcare are top of the Russian-Asian cooperation agenda. The established healthcare interaction was widely used during the pandemic, but relevant work has been going on for many years in the interest of joining forces to counter the spread of infectious diseases. We have always advocated and continue to advocate for the preservation and strengthening of regional cultural diversity, the unique traditional way of life and identity of the peoples of Asia. We are building up cooperation through the multilateral mechanisms operating here. The backbone element of the regional architecture is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Relations with #ASEAN are in their fourth decade, and next year it will be 5 years since they reached the level of strategic partnership. Russia is an active participant of such ASEAN-led formats as the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus. Thanks to this determined work with the region, the necessary basis has been created, which makes it possible to further build up our multifaceted ties in Asia. This applies primarily to the business sector, which is now being actively reoriented from the Western direction. "Pivot to the East" is not a forced move or, as you say, the need to actively work in Asia that has arisen since 2022. The fact is that until recently mass media paid less attention to the Asian track of our foreign policy compared to the Western one. Question: What other significant "footholds" does Russia have in the vast region of Asia besides China? Answer: One of the important regions for us is the Southeast Asia, where we interact both with countries on a bilateral basis and with #ASEAN as a whole. We are developing multifaceted cooperation with India. Broad cooperation programs are being implemented with Mongolia, including in a trilateral format with China. We are strengthening ties with the countries of the Indian Ocean region, particularly since Russia acquired the status of a dialogue partner of such a large regional platform as IORA (Indian Ocean Rim Association) last year. And of course, the key and even systemic driver of growth is the expanding and consolidating cooperation space of the #SCO.

🎙Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions following his visit to the United States within the framework of Russia’s UN Security Council Presidency 📍New York, July 17, 2024 💬 I came to New York for two key events – open debates – that were held yesterday and today within the framework of Russia’s UN Security Council Presidency. Not only members of the Security Council but all other delegations could attend them. You saw how many of them did so. The first issue we proposed for discussion yesterday concerned the conceptual framework of international relations, multilateralism and multipolarity. We pointed out the gradual erosion of system that was created after the Second World War on the basis of the central role of the UN. I hope that you listened to my statement and to the statements made by other participants. We did not expect to come to agreement on the majority of issues, considering the current tensions on the international stage and the state of relations between the collective West and the Global Majority. ☝️ Although we had no big illusions, I believe that it was a useful discussion. At the very least, the overwhelming majority of participants agreed that we have problems. Many of them expressed opinions that coincide with our vision of the objective development of a multipolar world order, which I presented in my statement. Another conclusion is that this discussion will most certainly be continued. There is an apparent interest for this, and it is growing. We will actively keep it up, and we will organise additional discussions on this issue not only at the UN but also at other multilateral platforms, including at the Group of Twenty, at associations such as #BRICS and the #SCO, as well as in the framework of our contacts with the regional organisations of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The restoration of trust is the top priority now, as the representative of Guyana pointed out yesterday. So far, there was no hint of dialogue. Another important statement he made was that trust could only be rebuilt if all parties without exception comply with the agreements reached. This is not the case so far. Examples of that were provided yesterday in my statement and in the statements of other participants. Overwhelming evidence of that was also provided during today’s open debate on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. The overwhelming majority of the UN resolutions on Palestine have not been implemented. The second debate I have mentioned is not over yet. Many speakers have called for taking resolute steps. We hold a similar view. The first steps must include the termination of hostilities, a permanent ceasefire, the settlement of critical humanitarian problems and, of course, the termination of Israel’s actions to create illegal settlements. We hope that if or when this is done, this will create conditions for resuming negotiations on the implementation of UN decisions on the establishment of the Palestinian state that would live in peace and security with Israel. <...> 🤝 I have held a series of bilateral meetings with the foreign ministers of Arab countries, with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Peter Szijjarto, and with Head of the Federal Department (Minister) of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis. 📄Read in full

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s greetings to organisers and participants in the 15th International IT Forum in Khanty-Mansiysk 💬 I would like to offer my warm welcome to the organisers and participants in the 15th International IT Forum. Discussing information and communication technologies is becoming especially significant in modern conditions. Russia consistently advocates fair management of the international digital environment by closing legally binding agreements. Russian professionals are working on solving this problem in close coordination with #SCO and #BRICS partners, as well as with other countries of the Global Majority. A global intergovernmental registry of contact points was created in May 2024 at Russia’s initiative. This first universal measure to strengthen trust in the online environment will help establish direct links between competent bodies in the event of cyberattacks and other incidents. BRICS is launching a similar mechanism soon. The other initiatives by Russia that I want to single out include a draft comprehensive convention on combating crimes committed using information and communication technologies. We are also interested in expanding international cooperation in AI, the use of which can bring both potential economic benefits and grave security risks. I am confident that this meeting will also contribute to our joint efforts and I believe that participants will enjoy highly professional discussions and helpful exchanges while final recommendations will be translated into actual practices.

Conciliative commission has already started working #CMFA#SCO

Some countries like Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Sri Lanka are not going to take part in the negotiations with RATS. #CMFA#SCO

The president of the CMFA is listening carefully to the delagas #SCO#CMFA

🇷🇺Excerpts and key points from Russia's President Vladimir Putin's answers to questions at the plenary session of the 22nd annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club 📍October 2, 2025, Sochi 💬President Vladimir Putin: • Modern institutions experienced degradation precisely during the period when certain countries, or the collective West, sought to exploit the post-Cold War situation by declaring themselves victors. In this context, they began imposing their will on everyone – this is the first point. Second, all others gradually, at first mutedly, then more actively, began to resist this. • What was the OSCE created for? To resolve complex situations in Europe. And what did it all boil down to? The entire activity of the OSCE reduced to becoming a platform for discussing, for example, human rights in the post-Soviet space. • We gradually came to realise that we needed to create institutions where issues are resolved not as our Western colleagues attempted to resolve them, but genuinely based on consensus, genuinely based on aligning positions. This is how the #SCO – the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – emerged. This is how #BRICS emerged • We are fighting this war and producing our own military equipment. But on the other side of the line, we are effectively at war with the collective might of NATO. They are no longer even hiding this fact. We see this in the direct involvement of NATO instructors and representatives from Western countries in the hostilities. A command centre has been established in Europe for the purpose of coordinating our adversary’s war effort: providing the Armed Forces of Ukraine with intelligence, satellite imagery, weapons, and training. And I must reiterate: these foreign personnel are not only involved in training; they are directly participating in operational planning and combat operations themselves. ❓ Yet if we are combating the entire NATO alliance, advancing thus with unwavering confidence, and are deemed a “paper tiger” – what does that make NATO itself? What manner of entity is it then? • In September, the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine amounted to about 44'700 people, nearly half of them irretrievable losses. In the same period, they forcibly mobilised slightly more than 18'000 people. Approximately 14'500 people have returned to the army from hospitals. If we add up these figures and subtract the total from the number of casualties, we will see that Ukraine lost 11'000 in one month. In other words, the number of its troops on the frontline was not replenished and is decreasing. • They say: the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact – an atrocity, colluding with Hitler, the Soviet Union conspired with Hitler. Well, no, not at all. And you yourselves had conspired with Hitler shortly before and carved up Czechoslovakia. As though that never occurred. Propagandistically – yes, one can hammer these false equivalences into people’s heads, but in essence, we know how it truly was. That was the first act of the Ballet de la Merlaison. • They began not merely equating Stalin’s and Hitler’s regimes – they attempted to erase the very outcomes of the Nuremberg Trials. Bizarre, given that these were participants in a shared struggle, and the Nuremberg Trials were collective, held precisely so that nothing similar would recur. Yet they began doing that. They started tearing down monuments to Soviet soldiers and so forth, those who fought against Nazism. • The situation in Gaza is one of the most tragic events in recent history. It is also well known that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has publicly admitted – and he often reflects Western views – that Gaza has become the largest children’s cemetery in the world. What could be more tragic? What could be more painful?

🎙Excerpt from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks at the General Debate of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (New York, September 27, 2025) WATCH the full speech (eng subs) ▶️ 💬 Kiev regime, which seized power as a result of an anti-constitutional couporchestrated by the West in 2014, is pursuing the dismantling of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and eradicating the Russian language by law from all areas of life, including education, culture and media. ❌ Ukraine is the only country in the world that has a law suppressing the native language of nearly half of its population. Arabic is not banned in Israel and Hebrew is not prohibited in the Arab countries or Iran. But Russian is banned in Ukraine. I would like to remind you that Article 1 of the UN Charter states that it is necessary to promote “respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.” Europe remains silent, obsessed with its utopian goal of delivering a “strategic defeat” on Russia. Therefore, the Kiev regime can do anything it wishes to do, including terrorist attacks against politicians and journalists, torture and extrajudicial killings, indiscriminate bombing of civilian facilities, and reckless sabotage targeting nuclear power plants. As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stressed, since the very beginning, Russia has been and remains open to negotiations aimed at eliminating the root causes of the conflict. Russia’s security and vital interests must be reliably guaranteed. The rights of Russian and Russian-speaking people on territories remaining under the control of the Kiev regime must be restored in full. ☝️ This is the basis on which we are willing to discuss Ukraine’s security guarantees. At the moment, neither Kiev nor its European sponsors show any sign of realising the gravity of the moment. <...> We pin certain hopes on continuing the Russian-US dialogue, especially since the Summit in Alaska. *** This December marks the 65th anniversary of the General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. <...> The peoples of Africa and Asia refused to live under colonial oppression – a sentiment echoed by the populations of Crimea, Donbass and Novorossiya after the 2014 coup in Ukraine in their refusal to submit to the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev. ❗️ This regime, which came to power through illegitimate means, not only failed to represent their interests but also unleashed a war against them. Today, Africa and the wider Global South are experiencing a renewed awakening as they strive for full independence – a process from which the UN must not stand apart. In December 2024, the General Assembly approved the Resolution on the Eradication of Colonialism in all its Forms and Manifestations. As a next step, we call for a decision to declare December 14 the International Day against Colonialism. We welcome the role of the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter in consolidating efforts to counter neocolonial and other discriminatory practices against the Global Majority. The Global Majority is now asserting its rights with a powerful voice. In this context, the #SCO and #BRICS play a prominent role as key mechanisms for coordinating the interests of the Global South and East. These new realities have yet to be adequately reflected in the institutional architecture of our Organisation. The reform of the UN Security Council remains a particularly pressing issue. ✅ Russia advocates for its democratisation through broader representation of countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America. We support the candidacies of Brazil and India for permanent membership in the Security Council, as well as the redress of the historical injustice against Africa, based on parameters agreed upon by the continent’s countries themselves.

🎙Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's interview with Channel One’s Bolshaya Igra (Great Game) political talk show(September 18, 2025) Key points: • Unlike all other Western figures, whose actions and positions boiled down to the mantra that “Ukraine is right,” that Russia must suffer a “strategic defeat,” and that Ukraine’s sovereignty must be restored within its 1991 borders, Donald Trump and his team have repeatedly demonstrated, including publicly, an understanding of the need to address the root causes of the conflict. Donald Trump has stated publicly on multiple occasions that drawing Ukraine into NATO was a mistake. He made it abundantly clear that, to achieve a settlement, these aspirations must be set aside and security must be built on different principles. • We appreciated Donald Trump's openness and frankness back then and we do now. He doesn’t use underhand tactics, and he never conceals his thoughts. We appreciate his emphasis on results. He calls it making a deal in the broad sense of the word. • We would like to maintain the current dialogue between our Presidents, Foreign Ministers, national security aides, and special envoys of the two Presidents, as well as communication via other channels. We see that the American side wants this too. • All these Europeans made no secret of their previous and ongoing public efforts to dissuade US leadership from pursuing any constructive measures towards Russia within the context of the Ukrainian crisis. They seek to drag the United States back onto the treacherous path it followed under Joe Biden, when this was “Joe Biden’s war.” The Europeans are determined to make it “Donald Trump’s war” as well. They do not conceal this. • President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made it clear that, ultimately, a sustainable agreement means a compromise. We are prepared to seek a compromise provided that our legitimate security interests and the legitimate interests of the Russian people in Ukraine are ensured just as the legitimate interests of other parties to such an agreement are. • The Trump administration recognises the importance of NATO-related issues. They’ve stated it publicly. There’s an understanding that the referenda in Crimea and other territories cannot be ignored. Any potential agreement must take the outcomes of these referenda into account. • Undoubtedly, they seek to impede any agreement – they oppose a settlement that would terminate their protracted endeavours to transform Ukraine into a perpetual irritant, if not an explicit threat, to the Russian Federation. That is obvious. • The war in Ukraine which the West has organised against us has proved that the Euro-Atlantic concepts have not lived up to the promises made during their creation. • President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated: we have never had, do not have, and will never have any plans to attack any NATO or EU country. Since 2008, we have tabled documents guaranteeing indivisible security and ensuring that no country enhances its security at the expense of others. This was endorsed by all parties within OSCE summits. • The new emerging economies continue to assert themselves. All forecasts point to this being a long-term and sustainable trend. <...> There is unity both within #BRICS and within the #SCO. We reject domination and diktat, and advocate for indivisible security across all regions. • We have our own military-political alliances, primarily the Union State of Russia and Belarus. The CSTO and the SCO also have a strong military-political dimension related to ensuring the security of member states. None of these formats ever sought to be hostile towards anyone. • President Putin advanced the initiative for creating a continental Eurasian security architecture in 2024, starting with joining the efforts and launching dialogue between subregional integration organisations and gradually moving towards a continental agreement. Read in full