⚡️ Russia's position at the seventy-eighth session of the UN General Assembly:

UN peacekeeping

📃 UN peacekeeping should strictly comply with its basic principles and the UN Charter. Efforts should be focused on promoting political settlement and national reconciliation. The use of new technologies should not overshadow the key tasks of peacekeeping. Intelligence in peacekeeping should solely be used to ensure the safety of peacekeepers and the protection of civilians.

❗️ Expanding the peacekeepers' mandate, including by granting them the authority to use force, is only possible by decision of the Security Council with strict consideration of the specific circumstances in a particular country.

We are convinced that the UNGA Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (C-34) should maintain its leading role in developing common parameters for peacekeeping. We consider counterproductive attempts to bypass this forum, including through the UNSC.

☝️ We believe that there are good prospects for engaging the CSTO in UN peacekeeping activities. The CSTO has come a long way in improving its peacekeeping capacities. The Organization's Member States express willingness to enhance their participation in UN peacekeeping efforts not only in their national capacity but also under the CSTO banner.

International support for peacebuilding and peacekeeping should only be provided at the request of the host Government and with a view to building the states' own capacities. The replenishment of the peacebuilding fund through assessed contributions is possible provided that the transparency and accountability of its expenditures are increased and UN intergovernmental bodies issue relevant mandates.

#UNGA78

Good morning, India! 🌞 शुभ प्रभात, भारत!

📸 Can you guess location on the photo?

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⚡️ Russia's position at the seventy-eighth session of the UN General Assembly:

Combating illicit arms diversion

📃 As regards the situation in Ukraine, we are deeply concerned that the Western countries undermine global efforts to combat illicit arms diversion and violate their arms control obligations. The unrestrained "pumping" of weapons into the Kiev regime by NATO Member States, which openly acknowledge the lack of capabilities to trace their further movement, is sharply exacerbating the risk of these weapons, including particularly sensitive ones, falling into the hands of criminal organizations and terrorist groups, as well as their uncontrolled proliferation in Europe and worldwide.

Good morning, India! 🌞 शुभ प्रभात, भारत!

📸 Can you guess location on the photo?

The correct answer will be posted in comment section later today!

#ICYMI

⚡️ We've been sharing Russia's comprehensive position at the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly

A refresher 👇

• Regarding situation around Ukraine
• Middle East settlement
• Africa
• Situation in Kosovo
• Situation in Yemen
• Iraq
• Libya
• Afghanistan
• Settlement in Colombia
• DPRK
• Myanmar
• Cyprus issue
• Bosnia and Herzegovina

***

• Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
• Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
• START Treaty
• Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention
• Arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation
• Development of important multilateral arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation arrangements

***

• Climate Change
• International anti-corruption cooperation
• Rights of the child
• International information security
• Combating maritime crime
• Drug problem
• Sport
• Fight against terrorism
• Law of the sea

#UNGA78

🇷🇺🇺🇳 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrives at the UN Headquarters for the UNGA High Level Week events and UNSC meeting.

📹 Video by Maria Zakharova

🔴 #LIVE: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks at the UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine

🔗 https://twitter.com/mfa_russia/status/1704541818572959963

🔗 https://www.facebook.com/MIDRussia/videos/672382861505335

🔗 https://mid.ru/en/press_service/video/

🔗 https://www.ruptly.tv/event_route?link_id=6c885638-a607-43d6-8148-60df3bfb4632&provider_id=4

#UNGA78

Good morning, India! 🌞 शुभ प्रभात, भारत!

📸 Can you guess location on the photo?

The correct answer will be posted in comment section later today!

🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 Media Statement following the Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs/International Relations on the margins of the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (20 September 2023)

Key points:

📄 The BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs/International Relations held their annual meeting on the margins of the #UNGA78 on 20 September 2023, chaired by the Russian Federation in its capacity as the incoming BRICS Chair for 2024.

• The Ministers exchanged views on major global and regional issues on the United Nations agenda in the political, security, economic, financial, and sustainable development spheres, as well as on intra-BRICS activities.

• The Ministers reiterated their commitment to strengthening multilateralism and upholding international law, including the Purposes and Principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations as its indispensable cornerstone, and the central role of the UN in an international system.

• The Ministers supported a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more democratic, representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries in the Council’s memberships.

• The Ministers underscored the importance of sustained efforts aimed at making the United Nations more effective and efficient in implementing its mandates.

• The Ministers were briefed on the preparations for Russia's upcoming BRICS Chairship in 2024. Brazil, India, China and South Africa extended their full support to Russia for its BRICS Chairship in 2024 under the theme “Strengthening of multilateralism for the purposes of just global development and security” and the holding of the XVI BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia. The Ministers also look forward to the Standalone Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs/International Relations in Russia in 2024.

Read in full

🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took part in the traditional #BRICS FM Ministerial on the sidelines of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly.

#UNGA78

🎙 Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Moscow, September 19, 2023)

🔷 FM Sergey Lavrov’s schedule
🔷 Ukrainian crisis
🔷 Crimes of Ukrainian nationalists
🔷 Ukraine’s responsibility for the deterioration of the environment in the region
🔷 #RussiaArmenia relations
🔷 Attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2
🔷 Restrictions on the Foreign Ministry’s YouTube account
🔷 Situation in Nagorno-Karabakh

And more...

📚 Read in full

💬 We can see some Western countries’ attempts to whitewash and canonise Ukrainian neo-Nazis. For example, the city authorities allowed the holding of a photo exhibition dedicated to the Nazi Azov battalion in Milan, on one of the city streets and in the Risorgimento Museum. Militants of this terrorist organisation are presented as “defenders” of Mariupol there. <...> A biased article in Le Figaro, France, about the Azov and Right Sector neo-Nazi organisations, whose members are depicted almost as patriots, is another outrageous example.

All these facts provoke outrage, and I would like to ask the Italians and French a question: when your journalists and politicians are trying to whitewash Ukrainian neo-Nazis and present them in such a heroic light, do you remember what your countries went through during World War II?

***

💬 The decisions by the UK and the United States to supply Kiev with depleted uranium munitions have had dire long-term consequences for the region. As a result, water and soil in a vast territory have been contaminated with radiation.

Some international experts are trying to talk their way out of this situation, claiming that this is not really a nuclear security issue. Of course, there is no need to explain. We should consider this problem not only from the point of view of physics, but also of chemistry. There are no options there other than to call it a global-scale disaster.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the BRICS Ministerial Meeting on the sidelines of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly (New York, September 20, 2023)

💬 I would like to thank our South African friends for their productive chairmanship in the past period. The BRICS Summit in Johannesburg and the Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Relations in Cape Town were a great success.

Documents have been drafted that provide a solid framework for the future development of our association. I am primarily referring to the six new full members that joined our ranks: Argentina, Egypt, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia.

🤝 All these countries support the fundamental goals and values of #BRICS, including the spirit of solidarity, equality, mutual respect, openness, inclusiveness and mutually beneficial cooperation based on consensus. I have no doubt that our new partners and colleagues will contribute to the association’s development.

This was a long overdue and much awaited step that confirmed that the collective voice of BRICS in defence of the global South and global majority is highly relevant in modern international relations.

More and more Asian, African and Latin American states are consolidating their economic positions and demonstrating that they are willing and ready to defend their sovereign national interests and influence global processes. We are witnessing the emergence of a more equitable, polycentric world order.

☝️ The unipolar world is becoming a thing of the past.

Read in full

Off we go! 🇺🇳

Day 1 📹 #UNGA78

🇷🇺🇺🇳 On September 20, the Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived at the UN Headquarters in New York to participate in the High-Level week of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

The first working day was a success 👇

• Meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan Ayman Safadi.
• Meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Honduras Eduardo Enrique Reina.
• Conversation with Foreign Minister of Venezuela Yvan Gil.
• Working meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the CSTO member countries.
• Meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs/International Relations.
• FM Lavrov's remarks at the UN Security Council meeting.
• Ad hoc meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers Council.
• Meeting with Director General of IAEA Rafael Grossi.
• Meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

#ICYMI

🎙 FM Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the UNSC meeting “Upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter through effective multilateralism: maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine” (New York, September 20, 2023)

Key talking points:

• When the Cold War came to an end, the US-led so-called collective West appropriated the right to rule the destinies of the entire humankind and, driven by its exceptionalism complex, started ignoring the legacy of the UN founding fathers more often and on an increasingly greater scale.

• The West makes selective use of the Charter’s norms and principles, on a case-by-case basis, and only when they serve its vested geopolitical needs. This inevitably throws global stability off-balance, exacerbating the existing hotbeds of tension and creating new ones.

• As for talks, we do not refuse to talk now either. President of Russia Vladimir Putin said this on numerous occasions, including recently. <...> President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky has signed an executive order prohibiting talks with the government of Vladimir Putin. If the US is interested in such talks, I think it only needs to give the signal for Zelensky’s order to be cancelled.

• Today, the rhetoric of our opponents is full of slogans such as “invasion,” “aggression” and “annexation.” They do not say a word about the inner reasons for the problem, or the fact that for many years they nurtured a downright Nazi regime, which is openly rewriting the results of World War II and the history of their own people.

• While chanting their mantras about the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the former colonial powers keep silent about the UN decisions inviting France to return the island of Mayotte to the Comoros and Britain to withdraw from the Chagos Islands and to resume negotiations with Argentina to resolve the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) issue.

• Facts point to a deep crisis in international relations and the absence of the Western countries’ desire and will to overcome this crisis.

Read in full

#UNGA78

🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 On September 20, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov chaired a traditional meeting of the BRICS Foreign Ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. According to the established practice, the meeting was organised by the Russian Side as the next BRICS Chair.

The Ministers exchanged views on a wide range of current international issues, including those on the agenda of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly. They considered ways of promoting peace and security, global economic stability and sustainable development.

The Parties reaffirmed their intention to enhance the coordination of the #BRICS format at international platforms, relying on the members’ commitment to multilateralism and the vision of a more equitable world order with the central role of the United Nations and governed by international law.

The participants reviewed certain aspects of interaction within the BRICS framework in the context of the decisions made at the XV BRICS Summit, held on August 22-24 in South Africa. Sergey Lavrov informed his colleagues about Russia’s plans for chairing BRICS in 2024.

Following the meeting, the Ministers approved a joint communiqué.

#UNGA78

🇷🇺🇺🇳 Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

#UNGA78