Lavrov's address to the participants and organisers of the World Online Conference

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's video address to the participants and organisers of the World Online Conference on Multipolarity (Moscow, April 29, 2023)

Key talking points:

🌐 Today, the movement towards global multipolarity is a fact, a geopolitical reality.

☝️ We see new global centres, primarily in Eurasia, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, grow and achieve impressive success in various fields relying on their independence, state sovereignty and cultural and civilisational identity.

• We are witnessing the continued transformation of the structure of international relations. A striking example of multipolar diplomacy is the work of multilateral associations of a new type such as the SCO and BRICS.

❗️ It makes perfect sense that Washington and its satellites’ efforts to reverse the course of history and make the international community live according to the “rules-based order” they invented are failing. I will mention only one of them, the Westerners’ policy to isolate Russia.

• In today's multipolar world, in the face of cross-border challenges and threats, the only reasonable alternative to confrontation (those who initiate confrontations will lose, too) is to combine the efforts of key global centres on the principles of the UN Charter, including respect for the sovereign equality of states ensured in practice. Everyone needs to recognise the irreversibility of the emergence of a more equitable polycentric international system.

🇷🇺 Russia remains at the forefront of international efforts to strengthen the multipolar, legal and democratic principles of interstate communication. <...> We will certainly continue to closely coordinate our steps with our numerous friends, allies and countries that share our views, including our partners in the #CSTO, the #EAEU, the #CIS, #BRICS, the #SCO and other regional associations of the developing world.