UN: Sergey Lavrov defends the importance of border integrity without mentioning that his country violated this rule in Ukraine
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke this Saturday morning in New York (at 4:30 pm in Lisbon), at the United Nations headquarters, and did not hold back in criticizing the West. At the beginning of the speech, he listed a series of “illegal wars” in NATO, that is, those that did not have approval from the UN Security Council, such as in Iraq and Libya, leaving aside, of course, the invasion of Ukraine as a of those moments when Russia launched a war on a country without asking the UN for authorization. He also left aside other massacres, for example in Syria and Chechnya, which also did not go before the UN. He also spoke about the invasion of Afghanistan by the United States (the 1979 invasion led by the Red Army was left out of the speech) and the fact that this destabilization of the Middle East led to the emergence of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda. In Syria, Western support for the rebels, he said, has led to the birth of radical Islamic militias that terrorize the country.
In the next block, Lavrov praised the objectives of “global cooperation” outlined by the various secretaries-general, but reduced them to “excellent slogans” because we cannot talk about cooperation, the government official stressed when “the West trampled on all these unshakable values of globalization that they told us about for so many years, from this platform, trying to convince us that they would ensure equal access for all to the goods of free civilization.”
“Where is the presumption of innocence, freedom of expression, access to information, fair competition in markets with understandable and immutable rules?” asked Lavrov. As he spoke, one of the representatives of the Ukrainian delegation was frantically taking notes. He criticized the imposition of sanctions, trade blockades, the undue influence of the United States over the World Trade Organization and the return of colonialism. “The West also wants to transform the UN into an instrument to advance its mercantile plans,” said Lavrov, urging Secretary-General António Guterres to staff the various UN bodies with people who do not just come from Western countries. “The Secretariat must come forward with unifying ideas and propose compromise options, instead of introducing into work events narratives that are beneficial to the West,” said Lavrov, recalling that the UN is not divided between “the countries that sit at the table and those that are just the menu”.
The topic of Israel’s wars was also explored by Lavrov who appealed to “all those who still have a sense of compassion”, and were outraged by October 7th, to also be outraged by “the mass punishment of the Palestinians”. Another “flagrant example of terrorist methods as a means of achieving political goals” by Israel is “the inhumane attack on Lebanon that turned civilian technology into a lethal weapon,” Lavrov said, referring to the explosion of pagers e walkie-talkiespreviously booby-trapped by Israel and handed over to some members of the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, although many exploded in the hands of civilians.
In the end, Lavrov returned to the topic of NATO, accusing the Atlantic Alliance of having been “for 30 years” expanding in Europe, “in which it is trying to take root”. NATO’s expansion into Central Asia has also been criticized for creating “direct threats to the security of our country,” Russia. Lavrov also denounces NATO’s expansion in the Asia-Pacific region, “where NATO’s infrastructure is infiltrating” and where, “to contain or dissuade China and Russia, narrow military political blocs are being created that undermine inclusive security architecture under the umbrella of ASEAN,” concluded Lavrov, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The most ironic part of the speech was when Lavrov recalled that, in 1970, the General Assembly “unanimously established that everyone must respect the territorial integrity of States”. The minister made no reference to the fact that his country has been disrespecting the legally recognized borders of its neighboring sovereign state, Ukraine, since 2014.
