Russia called on Saturday for a revival of the global coalition that brought the world together to fight terrorism after Sept. 11, 2001, but started unraveling after the US-led invasion of Iraq and what it called the subsequent domination of world affairs by a single power — a veiled reference to the US.
“The solidarity of the international community fostered on the wave of struggle against terrorism turned out to be somehow ‘privatized,’” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the UN General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting.
He cited the US invasion of Iraq “under the false pretext of fight on terror and nuclear arms proliferation” and questions of excessive use of force against civilians in counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.
And he said the recent crisis over Georgia’s breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia proved again that “it is impossible or even disastrous to try to resolve the existing problems in the blindfolds of the unipolar world.”
“Today, it is necessary to analyze the crisis in the Caucuses from the viewpoint of its impact on the region and the international community on the whole,” Lavrov said.
“The world has changed again” he said.
“It has become crystal clear that the solidarity expressed by all of us after 9/11 should be revived through the concepts cleared of geopolitical expediency and built on the rejection of double standards when we fight against any infringements upon the international law — be it on the part of terrorists, belligerent political extremists or any others,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov lashed out at Georgia’s “aggression” and bombing of South Ossetia’s sleeping capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 8 and Russia’s intervention “to repel aggression” and fulfill its peacekeeping commitments.
Georgia disputes this, claiming that the Russian side initiated the conflict. The US and the EU have backed Georgia, contending that the Russian response was disproportionate.
But Lavrov made clear that Moscow would not brook any challenge to its recognition of the unilateral declarations of independence of the two breakaway provinces.
“This problem is closed now. The future of the peoples of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has been reliably secured by the treaties between Moscow [and their governments],” he said. “The situation around the two republics is finally going to be stabilized.”
Lavrov called for a new “solidarity” of the international community and a strengthened UN, saying only in the post-Cold War world can the world body “fully realize its potential” as a global center “for open and frank debate and coordination of the world policies on a just and equitable basis free from double standards.”
“This is an essential requirement if the world is to regain its equilibrium,” he said.
Declaring that Europe’s security architecture “did not pass the strength test” in Georgia, Lavrov reiterated Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s proposal in June for a new Treaty on European Security.
It would strengthen peace and stability and participants would reaffirm the non-use of force, peaceful settlement of disputes, sovereignty, territorial integrity and noninterference in another country’s affairs, he said.
Finally, he saidd, it would promote “an integrated and manageable development across the vast Euro-Atlantic region.”
Lavrov said work on the new treaty could be started at a pan-European summit and include governments as well as organizations working in the region.
He referred to it as “a kind of ‘Helsinki-2,’” a follow-up to the 1975 Helsinki Treaty between all European nations, together with the US and Canada, which evolved into the present-day Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the largest conflict-prevention and security organization on the continent.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS