Many of the speakers who have preceded me have expressed the thought that our shared planet is undergoing irreversible change. A new world order is being born before our eyes. Our future is being shaped through a struggle between the majority of the world’s peoples, who advocate for a fairer distribution of global goods and civilizational diversity, and the few who use neocolonial methods of subjugation in order to hold on to their disappearing dominance. The calling card, so to speak, of the collective West has long been a refusal to accept the principle of equality and a total unwillingness to negotiate. Accustomed to looking down on the rest of the world. Americans and Europeans constantly make all kinds of promises and undertake obligations — including written and legally binding ones — and then simply do not fulfil them. As President Putin has pointed out. the West has truly shown itself to be an empire of lies.
Like many other countries. Russia knows that from first-hand experience. In 1945. when together with Washington and London we were defeating the enemy on the front lines of the Second World War. our allies in the anti-Hitler coalition were already planning a military operation — Operation Unthinkable — against the Soviet Union. Four years later, in 1949. the Americans developed Operation Dropshot, designed to launch massive nuclear strikes on the Soviet Union. Those insane plans remained on paper, and the Soviet Union created its own retaliatory weapon. It took the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. when the world teetered on the brink of a nuclear war. for the idea of unleashing such weapons and the illusion that they could bring victory to cease to be a basis for the United States’ military planning.
When the Cold War ended, the Soviet Union played a decisive role in the unification of Germany and the agreement on the parameters of a new security architecture in Europe. Furthermore, the Soviet leadership, and Russia’s leaders after them, were given specific political assurances regarding the non-expansion eastward of the NATO military bloc. The corresponding records of those negotiations are in both our archives and those of the West, and are publicly available. But those Western leaders’ assurances turned out to be fraudulent. They had no intention of fulfilling them. Meanwhile, they were not in the least embarrassed by the fact that by bringing NATO closer to Russia’s borders, they were flagrantly violating the official commitments, made at the highest level in accordance with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe policy, to refraining from strengthening their own security at others’ expense or allowing any country, group of countries or organization to achieve military and political dominance in Europe.
In 2021 our proposals for concluding agreements on mutual security guarantees in Europe without changing Ukraine’s non-aligned status were arrogantly rejected. The West continued to systematically militarize the Russophobic Kyiv regime, which came to power through a bloody coup and was used to prepare for the unleashing of a hybrid war on our country. The recent series of joint exercises between the United States and its European NATO allies, including testing scenarios for the use of nuclear weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation, is a precedent unseen since the end of the Cold War. The obsessive insistence on fulfilling stated aim of inflicting “strategic defeat” on Russia decidedly blinded those irresponsible politicians who while they believe in their own impunity have lost the most basic sense of self-preservation.
Led by Washington, the NATO countries are not only building up and modernizing their offensive capabilities, but they are also trying to shift the armed confrontation into the outer space and information arenas. One new and dangerous manifestation of NATO’s expansionism is the attempt to extend the bloc’s area of responsibility to the entire Eastern hemisphere under devious slogans touting the “indivisible security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions”. To that end. Washington is creating subordinate, mini military and political alliances such as the Australia- United Kingdom-United States troika AUKUS. the United States-Japan-Republic of Korea trio and the Tokyo-Seoul-Canberra-Wellington quartet, pushing the participants into practical cooperation with NATO, which introduces its infrastructure into the Pacific theatre. Those efforts, which are openly designed to target Russia and China and bring about the collapse of the inclusive regional architecture that has arisen around the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, create a risk of the emergence of a new. explosive hotbed of geopolitical tension in addition to that in Europe, which has already reached boiling point.
We get the distinct impression that the United States and the “Western collective” that is completely subordinate to it have decided to give the Monroe Doctrine a global dimension. Those plans are both illusory and extremely dangerous, but that has not stopped the ideologists behind the new edition of the Pax Americana. The global minority is doing its utmost to slow the natural course of events. The Vilnius Summit communique issued by NATO Heads of State and Government characterizes what it calls “the deepening strategic partnership” between China and Russia as a threat to NATO. Speaking recently to his ambassadors abroad. President Macron of France expressed genuine concern about the potential expansion of the group made up of Brazil. Russia. India. China and South Africa (BRICS), claiming that it was evidence that
“The increasingly complex situation in the international arena poses the risk that the West, and Europe in particular, will become weaker ... The world order, with its principles and various forms of organization, where the West occupied and continues to occupy dominant positions, is being revised.”
Thus, if anyone, anywhere, gets together or makes friends without us or our permission, that is seen as a threat to our dominance. NATO’s advance into the Asia-Pacific region is “beneficial”, while the expansion of BRICS is dangerous.
And yet history’s logic is inexorable. The essential trend we are seeing is the desire of a majority of the world’s countries to strengthen their sovereignty and defend their national interests, traditions, culture and way of life. They no longer want to live according to anyone else’s dictates. They want to be friends and trade among themselves, but with the rest of the world as well — just on an equal footing and to the mutual benefit of all. Alliances such as BRICS and the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization are on the rise, giving the countries of the global South opportunities for joint development and standing up for the place they deserve in what is clearly an emerging multipolar architecture.
It may be that for the first time since 1945. when the United Nations was founded, we are seeing a chance for genuine democratization in world affairs, which is reason for optimism for all who believe in the supremacy of international law and want to see the revitalization of the United Nations as the central coordinating body of world politics, where we can agree on how to solve problems together, based on an honest balancing of interests. As far as Russia is concerned, there is clearly no alternative to that. However, the United States and its subordinates in the collective West continue to multiply conflicts that divide humankind artificially into hostile blocs and prevent us from achieving our shared goals. They are doing everything they can to prevent the establishment of a truly multipolar and just world order. They are trying to make the world play by their infamous and narrowly self-serving rules.
I would like to urge Western politicians and diplomats to carefully reread the Charter of the United Nations one more time. The cornerstone of the world order, created in the wake of the Second World War. is the democratic principle of the sovereign equality of States, large and small, regardless of their form of Government or internal political or socioeconomic structure. But the West still considers itself superior to the rest of humankind, as illustrated by an already notorious statement by the chief diplomat of the European Union (EU). Josep Borrell Fontelles. when he said that “Europe is a [blossoming] garden... [and] most of the rest of the world is a jungle”. He is not bothered by the fact that Islamophobia and other forms of intolerance of the traditional values of every world religion run rampant in that garden. Acts such as burning the Qur’an, insulting the Torah, persecuting Orthodox clergy and other kinds of mockery of the feelings of believers are literally happening all over Europe.
The West’s use of unilateral coercive measures is also a flagrant violation of the principle of the sovereign equality of States. The countries that have fallen victim to illegal sanctions — and there are more and more of them — are well aware that those restrictions hit the most vulnerable segments of the population hardest, provoking crises in the food and energy markets. We continue to insist on an immediate and total end to the United States’ unprecedentedly inhumane trade. economic and financial blockade of Cuba and on rescinding the absurd decision to declare Cuba a State sponsor of terrorism. Washington must abandon its policy of economic strangulation of Venezuela, without preconditions of any kind. We demand the lifting of the unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union on the Syrian Arab Republic, which are egregiously undermining its right to development. Any coercive measures imposed in circumvention of the Security Council must end. along with the West’s practice of manipulating the Council’s sanctions policies to put pressure on anyone it does not like.
A blatant manifestation of the Western minority’s self-centredness has been its obsessive attempts to Ukraineize the agenda for all international discussions, while relegating to the background a whole series of unresolved regional crises, many of which have been dragging on for years or even decades. It will be impossible to fully normalize the situation in the Middle East without resolving the main issue, which is settling the protracted Palestinian-Israeli conflict, based on the relevant United Nations resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative, originally introduced by Saudi Arabia. The Palestinians have been waiting for the State that was solemnly promised to them for more than 70 years, but the Americans, who have monopolized the mediation process, have done everything they can to prevent it. We call on all responsible countries to unite their efforts to create the conditions for a resumption of direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. It is encouraging that the League of Arab States has got a second wind and is revitalizing its role in regional affairs. We welcome Syria’s return to the Arab family and the normalization process that has begun between Damascus and Ankara, which we are trying to assist in together with our Iranian colleagues. Those positive developments reinforce the efforts of the Astana format to move closer to a settlement of the Syria issue, based on resolution 2254 (2015) and the restoration of Syria’s sovereignty.
We hope that with the assistance of the United Nations. Libyans will be able to meaningfully prepare for holding general elections in their long-suffering country. It has been unable to recover from the consequences of the NATO aggression of more than a decade ago. which destroyed the Libyan State and opened the floodgates for the spread of terrorism in the Sahel-Saharan region and for waves of millions of illegal migrants to Europe and other parts of the world. Analysts have noted that Muammar Al-Qaddafi was annihilated as soon as he abandoned his military nuclear
programme. The West thereby created horrifying risks for the entire nuclear non-proliferation regime.
We are concerned about the military hysteria that Washington and its Asian allies have been whipping up on the Korean peninsula, where United States strategic capabilities are being ramped up. The Russian and Chinese initiatives aimed at focusing on humanitarian and political issues as priorities have been rejected.
The tragic evolution of the situation in the Sudan is simply yet another consequence of the West’s failed experiments in exporting liberal democratic dogmas. We support constructive initiatives aimed at a rapid settlement of the intra-Sudanese conflict, first and foremost by facilitating a direct dialogue between the warring parties. As we have observed the West’s nervous reaction to recent events in Africa, particularly in the Niger and Gabon, we cannot help recalling how Washington and Brussels responded to the bloody coup in Ukraine in February 2014. which I already mentioned. It happened a day after a settlement agreement had been reached under EU guarantees, which the opposition simply trampled upon. The United States and its allies supported the coup, welcoming it as a “manifestation of democracy”.
The continuing deterioration of the situation in the Serbian province of Kosovo is a serious cause for concern. In supplying weapons to the Kosovars and helping them build an army. NATO is flagrantly violating the Security Council’s keystone resolution 1244 (1999). The whole world can see the sad story of the Minsk agreements on Ukraine repeating itself in the Balkans. I would like to remind members that the agreements provided for the special status of the Donbas republics and Kyiv sabotaged them openly with the West’s support. And now the European Union does not want to make its Kosovo proteges implement the 2013 agreements between Belgrade and Pristina on establishing a community of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo, with special rights regarding their language and traditions. In both cases, the EU was the guarantor of the agreements, and apparently they have shared the same fate. Like so-called sponsor, like result. Together with Washington. Brussels is now imposing its so- called mediation services on Azerbaijan and Armenia and helping to destabilize the South Caucasus. Now that Yerevan and Baku’s leaders have settled the issue of mutually acknowledging the two countries’ sovereignty between themselves, it is time for peace, making life more comfortable and building trust. Russia’s peacekeeping contingent will spare no effort to enable that.
Speaking of decisions of the international community that have remained on paper, we call for the completion, at long last, of the decolonization process in accordance with the relevant General Assembly resolutions and an end to colonial and neocolonial practices.
A vivid illustration of the “rules” that the West wants to make the whole world live by is the fate of the commitments it made back in 2009 to providing developing countries with $100 billion annually to finance climate-change adaptation programmes. If one compares the fate of those unfulfilled promises with the amounts that the United States. NATO and the EU have spent to support the racist regime in Kyiv, which is estimated at as much as $170 billion over the past year and a half, one can gain an understanding of what the “enlightened Western democracies”, with their so- called values, really think of you.
Overall, it is high time that we reformed the existing architecture of global governance, which has long failed to meet the needs of our times. The United States and its allies should abandon their artificial restrictions on the redistribution of voting quotas in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, while acknowledging the true economic and financial clout of the countries of the global South. The work of the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization should also be immediately unblocked. The expansion of the composition of the Security Council is also becoming increasingly important. That should be done solely by remedying the underrepresentation of the world’s majority countries — in Asia. Africa and Latin America. It is important that the new members of the Security Council, both permanent and non-permanent. can enjoy authority in their own regions and in global organizations such as the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, the Group of 77 and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
It is high time to consider fairer methods of composition of the Secretariat. The criteria in place for many years do not reflect the real weight of States in global affairs and artificially ensure excessive dominance of citizens of countries from NATO and the EU. Those imbalances are further exacerbated by the system of permanent contracts, which links people to positions in host countries of international organization
headquarters, the overwhelming majority of which are located in capitals that promote Western policies.
The United Nations reform should be supported by a new type of association, where there are no leaders and followers or teachers and students and where all issues are resolved on the basis of a consensus and the balance of interests. For example that is truly reflected in BRICS, which has significantly increased its authority following the Johannesburg summit and gained truly global influence.
At the regional level, there has been a clear renaissance of organizations such as the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the League of Arab States, the Gulf Cooperation Council and others. In Eurasia, a harmonization of integration processes gaining momentum within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic community, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. A Greater Eurasian Partnership is also being naturally formed and is open for participation to all associations and countries of our shared continent, without exception.
Unfortunately, those positive trends are being undermined by the increasingly aggressive Western attempts to maintain their dominance in world politics, economy and finance. It is in the common interest to avoid a fragmentation of the world into isolated trading blocs and macroregions, but if the United States and its allies do not want to negotiate on making globalization processes fair and equitable, then the rest of us will have to draw their own conclusions and think about how to make the prospects for their socioeconomic and technological development not dependent on the neocolonial instincts of their former colonial Powers.
The main problem lies with the West, because developing countries are prepared to negotiate, including on the platform of the Group of 20 (G20). as we saw at the recent Group summit in India. The main conclusion we reached after that summit is that the G20 can and should avoid politicization and should be able to do what it was created for: develop mutually acceptable ways to manage the global economy and finances. The opportunities for dialogue and negotiations are there, and we must not miss this moment.
All these trends must be fully taken into account in the work of the Secretariat, whose statutory aim is to seek the consent of all Member States within the United Nations, not somewhere else.
The United Nations was founded based on the outcome of the Second World War. and any attempt to revise that outcome would undermine the foundations of the world Organization. As a representative of a country that made a decisive contribution to the defeat of fascism and Japanese militarism. I would like to draw attention to the egregious phenomenon of rehabilitating Nazis and collaborators in a number of European countries, primarily Ukraine and the Baltic States. It is particularly alarming that last year, for the first time. Germany. Italy and Japan voted against the General Assembly resolution to combat the glorification of Nazism (see A/77/PV.54). That regrettable fact casts doubt on the sincerity of the repentance of those States for the mass crimes against humanity they perpetrated during the Second World War and runs counter to the conditions under which they were admitted to the United Nations as full-fledged members. We strongly urge the Assembly to pay special attention to these metamorphoses, which fly in the face of the position of the global majority and the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
Today, as so many times before, humankind is again at a crossroads. How history will play out is entirely up to us. It is in our shared interest to prevent a downward spiral into large-scale war and the final collapse of the mechanisms of international cooperation that were put in place by generations of our predecessors. The Secretary-General put forward an initiative to hold the Summit of the Future next year. The success of that undertaking can be ensured only through striking a fair and just balance of interests of all Member States, while respecting the intergovernmental character of our Organization. At our meeting on 21 September, the members of the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations agreed to actively contribute to achieving that.
As the Secretary-General said at a press conference on the eve of this session:
“If we want a future of peace and prosperity based on equity and solidarity, leaders have a special responsibility to achieve compromise in designing our common future for our common good.”
That is an excellent response to those who are trying to divide the world into democracies and autocracies and dictate their neocolonial rules to others.