NEW YORK, Sept 28: Russia is ready to hold negotiations to address the root causes of the conflict with Ukraine, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday.
Lavrov stressed the importance of safeguarding Russia's security and vital interests and restoring the rights of the Russian people and Russian-speaking populations in Ukraine.
Speaking on behalf of his country during the general debate of the 80th session of UNGA, he stated that Russia is open to discussing security guarantees for Ukraine, provided such negotiations are based on reliable respect for Moscow's rights and interests.
The grave violations of the principle of equality in sovereignty among nations undermine belief in justice and engender crises and conflicts, Lavrov stressed.
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He called for upholding this principle fully to ensure a fair status of all nations in the international system, regardless of the military might, population size, or economic status of those nations.
Lavrov affirmed that the West has flagrantly violated the principle of refraining from the use or threat of force multiple times, thereby undermining stability across the Middle East.
At the same time, the unlawful use of force by the Israeli entity against the Palestinians, alongside aggressive measures targeting Iran, Qatar, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, poses a real threat of igniting the entire region, he underlined.
Lavrov further indicated that the strikes on Iranian facilities that were under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), along with the strike on the Qatari capital Doha at a time when negotiations with the Hamas Movement were underway there with the engagement of US mediators, also deserve condemnation.
There is no apologetics for killing Palestinian civilians or collective punishment in the Gaza enclave, where children are coming under bombardment and grappling with starvation, hospitals and schools are decimated, and hundreds of thousands of residents are fleeing the enclave, Lavrov stressed.
With regard to the Russia-US relationship, Lavrov underlined that Russia's hopes are pinned on the continuation of dialogue between Moscow and Washington, particularly following the Alaska summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in a bid to forge practical solutions to the Ukrainian crisis and cultivate actionable cooperation, far removed from rigid ideological posturing.
Russia and the US shoulder a special responsibility toward the global situation and the imperative to avoid risks that could lead to a new war, he said.
On UN reform, Lavrov underscored that the global balance of power today is radically different from what it was 80 years ago.
He stressed the urgent need to broaden representation of Asia, Africa, and Latin America in the Security Council, and to operate with full transparency while safeguarding the interests of all member states, far from the West's attempts to impose its own rules-based order on international institutions.
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