Updated: December 10, 2020 5:22:56 am
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. (Press Service of the Russian Foreign Ministry via AP)
In a scathing comment on the Quadrangle (Quad) grouping, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has described India as an “object” of the West’s “persistent, aggressive, and devious” policy against China in the Indus. -Peaceful.
The West is also looking to “undermine” Russia’s close association and privileged relationship with India, Lavrov said.
“This is the goal of the strong US pressure on New Delhi in the area of MTC (Military Technical Cooperation),” he said at the general meeting of Russia’s Council on International Affairs on Tuesday. The comments were posted on Wednesday.
Although this is not the first time that the Russian minister has criticized the Quad – the strategic forum of the United States, Japan, Australia and India – the strong language and the reiteration of criticism after the Foreign Minister, S Jaishankar, to attend Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Tokyo in October raises questions.
The Foreign Ministry did not issue an official response to the Russian Foreign Minister’s comments, there is a perception in New Delhi that Moscow’s concerns are a result of its proximity to Beijing.
“Obviously, the West is trying to restore the unipolar model of world order,” Lavrov said. “It is unlikely that ‘Poles’ like Russia and China will be subordinate to him. However, India is currently subject to the persistent, aggressive and devious policy of Western countries as they are trying to engage it in anti-China games promoting Indo-Pacific strategies, the so-called ‘Quad’, while at the same time The West is trying to undermine our close association and privileged relations with India. This is the objective of the strong US pressure on New Delhi in military and technical cooperation ”.
The West, led by the United States, has launched a “game,” Lavrov said, “rejecting objective trends toward the formation of a multipolar world.” He has “postponed Russia and China for later and is trying to attract everyone else to a unipolar world by all means possible. For our part, we will promote a unifying agenda ”, he said.
“The G20 is the only mechanism outside the UN Security Council where it is still possible to reach an agreement on the basis of a balance of interests. It represents the so-called G7, the BRICS countries and the states that earlier share the BRICS philosophy than that of the G7 (Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia and Egypt). The G20 is a place where there is still hope to promote more balanced approaches that can then be used in formal international legal structures.
“Our official contacts with the West have been frozen by the West (I will not explain why, as this is common knowledge). This is the line towards the prevalence of the unipolar approach. They believe that ‘arrogant Russia’ has been ‘isolated’ and ‘punished,’ “Lavrov said.
In January this year, Lavrov had questioned the United States’ alleged double standards of upholding a “rules-based world order” while violating international law itself, and criticized the Indo-Pacific concept as considering only China’s containment.
“Why do our western friends insist on an order based on rules and not on international law?” He asked during the first ministerial keynote address at Raisina Dialogue 2020, the MEA-backed annual conference on strategic issues.
“When people say we want to develop Asia-Pacific cooperation in the form of Indo-Pacific strategies, they immediately ask questions. Does it include all those known to be part of Asia Pacific? Yes. Why do you need to call it Indo-Pacific? You know the answer. The answer is to contain China. It’s not even hidden. Indian friends are smart enough to understand this threat and stay out of it, “Lavrov had said.
Jaishankar, who spoke shortly after Lavrov’s session, disagreed with his Russian counterpart on the definition of a “rule-based world order.”
“… I think of the rule-based order as something that is more than (international) law, not less than (international) law,” Jaishankar had said.
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