US, allies should admit Global South influence: Russia's Lavrov
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The Russian foreign minister said at the UNGA the US and its allies must realize the economic and financial weight the nations of the global south bring.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addresses the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, at United Nations headquarters (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
In a speech to the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he believes there is an urgent need to reform global governance architecture.
According to the Foreign minister on Saturday, this involves the United States and its allies recognizing the economic and financial contribution of the Global South.
Last week, Sputnik reported that Lavrov expressed that the US is waging war against Russia by conducting the war in Ukraine and supplying the Ukrainian forces with weapons, ammunition, and intelligence.
During his address at the UN General Assembly, Lavrov expressed that the US and allies should "abandon artificial restraints on the redistribution of voting quotas in the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank, recognizing the real economic and financial weight of the countries of the Global South."
In addition, he noted that "the work of the WTO [World Trade Organization's] Dispute Settlement Body should also be immediately unblocked."
Read more: Extension of EU sanctions against Iran 'illegal': Lavrov
The foreign minister asserted that along with its "subordinate Western collective", the US continues to foster worldwide crises that artificially split humanity into antagonistic blocs which "prevent the achievement of common goals."
"They are doing everything to prevent the formation of a truly multipolar, just world order."
Lavrov also insisted that NATO's military expansion in the Asia-Pacific area, aimed at Russia and China, raises the potential of a new hotspot of tensions.
He detailed that this "dangerous" expansionism is aimed at extending the bloc to the entire Eastern Hemisphere "under the deceitful slogan of 'the indivisibility of the security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific region," and added that such efforts against Russia and China "towards the collapse of the inclusive regional architecture that has developed around ASEAN [the Association of South East Asian Nations]" risk to bring out a new "hotbed" of tension in addition to the already heated European hotbed.
The Group of 77 and China Summit in Havana last week is considered a milestone event that is expected to have global geopolitical implications not only for its host country but also for China specifically, as well as the broader Global South.
Founded back in 1964, the G77 quickly became a focal point for the world's economic landscape. The bloc became an international platform uniting developing nations and enabling them to voice their concerns, advocate their interests, coordinate their stances, and negotiate with developed nations.
This year's event, however, is not like the one held previously. At the heart of the 2023 summit is China; the main driver today toward a multipolar world and a primary leading power of the Global South.
