December 29, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov gave an interview to the “Russia Today” news agency to explain Russia’s foreign policy in 2021.
Lavrov said that in 2021, Russia will continue to pursue a pragmatic and responsible foreign policy and contribute to the establishment of a more just and democratic multipolar world order.
Lavrov stressed that with the changes in global geopolitics, the center of world politics and economy is shifting from Euro-Atlantic to the booming Eurasian region.
In this context, Russia will further strengthen the development of mutually beneficial cooperation with Eastern countries, including countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Lavrov said that today’s Eurasian continent is not only a region with huge resource potential, but also a region with the construction of transportation and logistics corridors, perfect infrastructure connectivity and multilateral cooperation.
Russia advocates coordinating the continuous acceleration of the integration process in the Eurasian region, and will further promote the docking of the Eurasian Economic Union and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Speaking of Russia-US relations, Lavrov said that Russia did not expect the new U.S. government to take office to ease the deteriorating Russian-American relations.
Lavrov believes that the current political circles in the United States are full of hysterical anti-Russian sentiment, and Russia does not see the possibility of rapid normalizing relations between the two countries.
Lavrov pointed out that the current Russian-US dialogue has become a pawn for the domestic political struggle of the United States, and the relationship between the two countries cannot achieve constructive cooperation against this background.
Lavrov believes that it is in the interest of Russia, the United States and the international community as a whole to extend the mandate of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
The Russian side hopes that the new U.S. government can extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty to the maximum five-year period stipulated in the Treaty without adding any conditions.
The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted world politics and diplomacy, triggering a deep crisis in the global economy, and the world faces a long and difficult recovery period, Lavrov said.
However, the Western countries led by the United States are unwilling to establish constructive and equal cooperation with the international community.
In defiance of the appeals of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, unilateral sanctions on epidemic prevention drugs, equipment and food are suspended out of humanitarian grounds, and the United States has imposed on the global strategic stability and arms control mechanism.
Destruction aggravates the pessimism of the international community.
