[Jeff Lebowski]

Sergei Lavrov was of the view that the reason for the world’s current state lies “first and foremost”, in the unwillingness of the self-proclaimed winners of the Cold War to reckon with “the legitimate interests of other States”.

“It is hard for the West to put up with its weakening centuries-long dominance in world affairs”, even though new economic centres and political influences have emerged, he said.

Mr. Lavrov maintained that “leading Western countries are trying to impede the development of the polycentric world, to recover their privileged positions” and impose their standards of conduct on others.

Moreover, he said that the West has been increasingly loathe to recall international law, saying that instead it “dwells on” a rules-based order aimed to position itself as the only “indisputable source of legitimacy”.

Instead of working collectively, formats “outside of legitimate multilateral frameworks” are decided behind closed doors and declared multilateral agreements, he continued.

Russia’s Foreign Minister underscored that universal conventions together with the UN Security Council resolutions “are an integral part of international law”, and yet the West would like to substitute them for its own rules.

“We’re seeing continued games played with conventions that commit countries to upholding linguistic, educational, religious and other rights of national minorities”, he argued.

“Even here our Western colleagues are guided by their own rules – they turn a blind eye to the open denial of national minorities’ rights and abet the retaining of an ignominious phenomenon of statelessness in Europe”.

Citing the UN Charter’s principle of non-interference in internal affairs, Mr. Lavrov said attempts are underway to add Venezuela “to the list of countries whose Statehood was destroyed before our eyes through aggression or coups inspired from abroad”.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/09/1047982