Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's opening remarks at a joint board meeting of foreign ministries of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, Brest, November 22, 2024
22 November 2024 17:19
2275-22-11-2024
Mr Ryzhenkov,
Mr Mezentsev,
Colleagues,
We appreciate your traditionally warm welcome. We feel at home here.
I believe we have picked the right place - the city of Brest which sits on the westernmost border of the Union State - to hold our joint meeting. This choice is particularly symbolic in the year that marks the 80th anniversary of liberation of Belarus from Nazi invaders. The Brest border outpost was the first to bear the blow of the Third Reich's war machine and became an epitome of courage and heroism of all the peoples of the former Soviet Union.
Jointly held board meetings of our respective foreign ministries provide a unique cooperation format. Since the time the Union State was formed, when the treaty to that effect was signed on December 8, 1999, we haven't missed a single year. This is our 25th meeting, an anniversary event, so congratulations are in order.
I am convinced - and Mr Ryzhenkov mentioned that too - that our joint work enjoys demand. It provides an effective mechanism for coordinating and developing common approaches to a variety of regional and international issues, as well as maintaining professional contacts between senior officials and experts from our respective ministries.
In pursuance of the collegiums' resolutions adopted in 2023, we have seen our diplomats effectively ensure the implementation of the initiatives included in the 2024-2026 Programme for Coordinated Foreign Policy Actions. We will continue to make sure that all its initiatives are implemented in the form of concrete recommendations.
We provided comprehensive foreign policy and diplomatic support for the work that is being carried out to implement the 2024-2026 Guidelines for Implementing the Provisions of the Treaty on the Establishment of the Union State.
Joint efforts to build up political, trade and economic cooperation with the countries of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America continue unabated.
Foreign Minister of the Republic of Belarus Maxim Ryzhenkov mentioned earlier that Belarus became a full SCO member in July. On November 11, it obtained an official status of a BRICS partner country. This is a new category implying the ability to participate in all events without exception. The only difference (since this is not full membership) is that at this junction partner countries will not be eligible for signing documents, but will nonetheless participate in all events. This is Russia and China's shared position. I believe it will get the support. Congratulations once again. We will discuss further coordination at the SCO, BRICS and other multilateral entities which bring together the World Majority countries.
The circle of our like-minded partners at the UN is expanding, primarily through active involvement of the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter. It was set up on the initiative of Venezuela, with our and our Belarusian friends' strong support. It advocates the importance of implementing the principles of the UN Charter not selectively or from time to time, but consistently and in their entirety, as opposed to the Western concept of the rules-based order. The sweeping adoption of Russia's annual resolution on combatting the glorification of Nazism, which is co-sponsored by Belarus, came as a compelling outcome of this work.
In view of the anniversary years (the 80th anniversary of liberation of Belarus; in 2025, liberation of Europe; the victory in the Great Patriotic War and in World War II), the General Assembly adopted on November 11 yet another resolution on combatting the glorification of Nazism. Despite, to put it bluntly, fierce resistance of Western countries, we received a decisive majority of votes, and the entire West revealed its true nature by voting against this resolution.
We commemorated the themes of anniversaries, including the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, with special statements at the OSCE. Alongside other like-minded countries, we adopted an important statement on freedom of expression. The tables have turned: previously the Soviet Union was accused of not having freedom of expression, but now we document on a daily basis the facts of concealed truth and restricted access to information practiced by Western governments and elites, which we regularly disseminate in the OSCE and other entities, including the UN system. They cannot be refuted and are not refuted.
An important area of our activity included monitoring NATO's actions to create new threats to the Union State's security.
We maintain a regular exchange of views and assessments on the state of affairs at the Council of Europe. The Americans, who are not members of the Council of Europe, are leveraging its bodies to come up with pseudo-legal instruments in order to put pressure on Moscow and Minsk.
The sides exchanged views on confidence-building measures and the creation of security architecture in Eurasia. Foreign Minister of the Republic of Belarus Maxim Ryzhenkov has already mentioned the Second Minsk Conference on Eurasian Security which was held on October 31-November 1. Indeed, it took centre stage and brought together an impressive number of participants, including ministers and deputy prime ministers from the European countries.
We started working on the Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity in the 21st Century. Today, we will make a major step forward and adopt a statement on a shared Russian-Belarusian vision of the Charter content, after which we will start working with other presumptive participants.
We are confronted with a challenge of countering the legal aggression of the West, which is quite urgent because every day they come up with something new which calls for constant attention on the part of our colleagues from the economic bloc and heads of government. Presidents are keeping a particularly close eye on it. However, the diplomatic support for this kind of activities and the importance of our joint efforts is growing.
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