Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s video address to participants in the 5th Global Forum of Young Diplomats, August 27, 2022

Colleagues, friends,

I am delighted to be able to address once again the participants of the 5th Global Forum of Young Diplomats that marks its anniversary. This year, the hospitable city of Kazan is hosting the event.

Today, we must expand dialogue instead of curtailing it. We have repeatedly said that we can overcome numerous contemporary problems by pooling our efforts and on the basis of generally recognised norms of international law. In this connection, it is hard to overestimate the potential of classic diplomacy which paves the way to well-thought-out compromises and a balance of interests. I am confident that, objectively speaking, its role should increase.

Those staking on force, hegemony and unilateralism, instead of diplomacy, obtain lamentable results. Suffice it to recall the aggression against Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya, an attempt to demolish Syria following these reckless undertakings, as well as the well-orchestrated colour revolutions in a number of countries. All this cost humankind hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives and brought chaos to various regions of the world.

Obviously, a striving to address one’s own problems at the expense of others has never yielded reliable and stable results. Moreover, this destructive line is doomed to fail today. It is common knowledge that in the past 25 years genuine tectonic shifts have taken place on the international scene. Powerful and independent players have emerged in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, and they are asserting themselves more actively. They implement a foreign policy line catering to their national interests, and they strengthen their own sovereignty and score impressive successes in various spheres. Objectively speaking, the modern world is multipolar. It is impossible to ignore this geopolitical reality.

In these conditions, Russia, the largest Eurasian and Euro-Pacific civilisation and a civilisation state, continues to implement a peaceful foreign policy line and to promote a positive and unifying global and regional agenda that looks to the future.

We are firmly committed to fundamental principles of international communication formalised in the UN Charter. First of all, this includes the sovereign equality of states, large and small. We consistently advocate respect for the cultural and civilisational diversity among nations and their right to determine their own destiny.

At the same time, we emphatically reject the neo-colonialist rules-based order being imposed by the US-led collective West. This order presupposes a racist division of the world into a group of exceptional states that a priori have the right to do everything they want and all other countries that must follow in the wake of the Golden Billion and cater to its interests.

While implementing this line, we continue to expand and deepen fruitful cooperation with an overwhelming majority of the international community’s members that account for over 80 percent of the planet’s population. They include our allies, like-minded states and friends, members of the CSTO, the EAEU, the CIS, BRICS, the SCO and RIC.

Dear friends,

Your traditional meetings make a strong contribution to our common effort to maintain an atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding on the international scene. They rely on the horizontal diplomacy concept, which is aimed at expanding a network of venues for informal contacts between young diplomats, representatives of state agencies and experts.

I am delighted to note that the current forum has an extremely packed programme. I would like to single out the ceremony of accepting new members of the International Association of Young Diplomats. It may be symbolic, but your convention is taking place on a par with another significant event, the Kazan Global Youth Summit. We always welcome and support such youth exchanges.

I am convinced that your current meeting will take place in a friendly and informal atmosphere, and will be an excellent opportunity to exchange professional experience, to establish mutually beneficial contacts and to gain an insight into the unique cultural and historical legacy of Tatarstan.

I wish you fruitful discussions and all the best.