Question: President Vladimir Putin will visit China soon. Beijing appears to be undeterred by potential sanctions from the United States for its ties with Russia. How do Russia and China approach the establishment of a new international order?

Sergey Lavrov: This is one of the key items on today's agenda. Indeed, the Western efforts to preserve its hegemony have entered a critical phase. You mentioned that Beijing is not afraid of the Western sanctions that may be imposed on it for cooperating with Russia, but sanctions can now be imposed for much more than that.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris not long ago. During this meeting, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen openly suggested in the presence of Chinese officials that China was producing too much of everything and suggested that it curbs the production alluding to potential sanctions otherwise. The United States has imposed sanctions on electric vehicles and EV batteries, meaning they will punish any nation for not only maintaining ties with Russia, but asserting independent behaviour as well.

China has emerged as a leader of global growth. This fact does not sit well with the United States, which, along with its satellites, having brought the rest of the West to its heel, made a doctrinal statement that they cannot allow anyone to become stronger or more influential than Washington. So, objectively, alongside our Chinese colleagues we are interested in continuing to lead the efforts to establish a fairer and more democratic world order. The West gets interested in democracy only when it needs to interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries. Then it starts thinking about democracy. However, on the international stage, it outright rejects all forms of equal cooperation, thus grossly violating the UN Charter, which states that the Organisation is based on the sovereign equality of all states.

Russia and China are not alone in their efforts to reform the international system and to promote the multipolar world order that would reflect the actual weight of the countries and their associations. Within the UN, we cooperate with the members of the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter of the United Nations. This is an important and expanding association. Members of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation stand with us as well.

Following the expansion of BRICS, our representation in the G20 has increased. Half of the G20 members are either BRICS members or share similar perspectives with us. Therefore, the Group of Twenty will undergo positive transformations emphasising the inclusion of the interests of other regions of the world and groups of countries rather than representing the interests of the collective West. In addition to cooperation within BRICS and the SCO, Russia and China actively support other integration processes in Eurasia, such as SCO-EAEU and SCO-ASEAN. The EAEU continues to engage with ASEAN.

China and Russia maintain extensive ties with the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. Speaking of other continents, the African Union and numerous sub-regional associations are traditional partners of Russia and China. The same applies to Latin America where the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, especially with President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva now in office, gained a second wind and once again became a point of attraction for the countries of the region. Russia and China maintain relations with this association.

We have numerous allies, and I have no doubt that we will have more of them which will contribute to democratising international relations, where every nation will have a rightful place of its own in global affairs based on its fair and actual contribution to the global economy, politics, and security system, as opposed to blackmail, threats, and ultimatums used by the West.

I can suggest with confidence that the duo of Moscow and Beijing is playing a crucial balancing role in international affairs. I am confident that the upcoming visit of President Putin to the People's Republic of China will further strengthen our joint efforts.

Question: Russia chairs BRICS this year. What’s the status of the implementation of the Russian chairmanship priorities? What are the prospects for BRICS?

Sergey Lavrov: The Russian chairmanship’s priorities are outlined in a fairly voluminous document. About 200 events have been planned in all spheres of BRICS activities that include nearly all areas of country-to-country interaction, ranging from politics and security to healthcare, sports, culture, and art.

Our key strategic goal is to ensure smooth integration of all new BRICS members − Egypt, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia − that became full-fledged participants of our association on January 1 by the decision of the 15th BRICS summit that was held in 2023. This is a crucial objective that takes just one line to put in writing, but calls for daily efforts. This work is progressing at full speed. Sherpas and sous-sherpas have had several meetings. Meetings to discuss sector-specific cooperation have been held as well. We are moving forward at a good speed.

The second fundamental objective is to enhance our foreign policy coordination on multilateral platforms. I have earlier mentioned the role played by BRICS and the G20 and the UN members that share similar perspectives. We will continue to interact with them. To ramp up our efforts to promote foreign policy coordination and to direct it towards more concrete actions, we will use the upcoming meeting of foreign ministers from BRICS countries in Nizhny Novgorod in June. This is an important event, which will be held for the first time in an expanded format. The participants will focus on promoting international cooperation and coordination.

Our priorities include matters of countering new challenges and threats, such as terrorism, drug trafficking, cybercrime, corruption, money laundering, and the legalisation of criminal proceeds. BRICS has relevant sectoral units covering all these areas.

Establishing a dialogue with the countries that are interested in having closer ties with BRICS across a wide spectrum of issues ranging from full membership to working or partnership relations is another important goal. There are about 30 such countries. Expanding a dialogue with them will be among our top political priorities as well.

At the 2023 BRICS summit, the leaders of the member countries decided to establish a new interaction category called “partner countries.” This category will largely replace the existing form of interaction, BRICS Plus. We plan to invite many countries and leaders of regional organisations from the Global South to the events sponsored by foreign ministries in Nizhny Novgorod and to the Kazan summit.

I’ve already covered the key points. We focus particularly on sports events, BRICS Games, cultural exchanges, and parliamentary diplomacy. The BRICS Parliamentary Forum will be held in St Petersburg in July. I’m aware that the Federation Council is actively involved in preparations. So, there’s plenty to work on.

Question: I would like to thank you for the systematic support provided to parliamentary and public diplomacy. Cooperation with African countries has intensified noticeably. What is the progress of implementing the second Russia-Africa Summit which took place in July 2023?

Sergey Lavrov: Our ministry, the President and the Government have this issue under priority control. During the second summit, there were numerous plenary sessions and bilateral contacts with individual sub-regional African associations. All of that continues to expand as part of our everyday activities. This is one of the main items on the agenda, including the implementation of the Declaration and Action Plan adopted at the second summit. A total of five documents were adopted by the African Union and the Government of the Russian Federation that are aimed at expanding practical cooperation in investment and trade, the creation of new supply chains, and transitioning to trade in national currencies or through the establishment of alternative payment platforms.

The New Development Bank of BRICS headquartered in South Africa is fully operational. It focuses on implementing projects in African countries. We stand together with them in this regard. Along the same lines, we joined the African Export-Import Bank a couple of years ago. It is a workable mechanism that allows us to explore new opportunities to invest and to implement mutually beneficial projects. The Russian Export Centre also helps us move forward in that direction. There is the Association for Economic Cooperation with Africa which is a non-government entity. We would like to see it more actively engaged in practical work to implement agreements reached in St Petersburg in July 2023.

The above covers practical cooperation, i.e., the material foundation of our interaction. In political terms, African countries are our allies on many items of the international agenda, including the defence of the principles of the UN Charter, which the West wants to apply selectively. When they need something, they choose a principle to rely on. When they need something that is diametrically opposite, they pick a principle that lends itself to a different interpretation. For example, with regard to the referendum in Crimea, the West said it contradicted the principle of territorial integrity. When Kosovo unilaterally declared independence (and we talked about Serbia’s territorial integrity), the West said the principle of the self-determination of peoples was at play. Therefore, we insist (and Africans support us) that all the principles of the UN Charter should always be applied in their entirety and interrelation. They are our allies in these matters. There are many items on the UN agenda where we vote as one.

We maintain close cooperation on the Palestine issue, the terrifying events that are unfolding in the Gaza Strip. In February, Africans were among the most active participants at the International Inter-Party Forum of Supporters of the Fight against Modern Neocolonial Practices. They will work in an entity that was created by the forum. The neocolonial theme is now widely discussed at various platforms. As an example of liberation from colonial dependence, Africa is leading in these processes. We support this trend.

In light of all the above and many other factors, during the planned structural adjustment of our ministry to new realities, we pay special attention to substantial increases in resources, including human resources, and enhancing organisational capabilities of our efforts in Africa.

Question: We have no more questions for you. Perhaps, you would like to say something in closing?

Sergey Lavrov: Ms Matviyenko, colleagues,

Thank you for your attention to the Foreign Ministry’s performance. We have many common endeavours. I mentioned the Russia-Africa Parliamentary Forum, which took place concurrently with the Russia-Africa Summit. The parliamentarians focus similarly on relations with other regions of the world, including Latin America. Last year, a parliamentary forum was held on this subject, and the Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko spearheaded many initiatives to promote parliamentary diplomacy, including parliamentary forums for female elected representatives, including cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and as part of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly. All of that significantly bolsters our joint efforts designed to implement the foreign policy course approved by the President.

Yesterday, following our discussion at a meeting of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko and her colleagues put together several requests, including those concerning the practical activities of our foreign diplomatic missions, which we took under advisement. With regard to expanding our human resources potential, the sky is the limit. We are grateful for this kind of attention and look forward to continuing close cooperation with the Federation Council.