Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's upcoming participation in the G20 Council of Foreign Ministers
On February 21-22, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in the G20 Ministerial Council in Rio de Janeiro. The upcoming meeting will be the first in a series under the Brazilian presidency. In September, the G20 foreign ministers are to meet again on the sidelines of the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly in order to coordinate strategies for building a common future for humanity. The expanded meeting will include a wide group of other states.
The G20 is consistently consolidating its standing as a leading economic forum, an important and prestigious platform for an equal dialogue between developed economies and emerging markets. Russia welcomes the association’s policy line, largely determined by emerging economies holding successive presidencies since 2022, to move away from the Western-centric agenda towards wider representation and full consideration of the interests of the Global South and the Global East.
As you know, the previous G20 presidencies, by India (2023) and Indonesia (2022), were highly successful, with important achievements such as the African Union joining the G20 as a permanent member and the 2023 Delhi Declaration of Leaders, co-sponsored by Russia and like-minded countries, which reflected many issues of principle for the new poles of power. In particular, the document stipulated the need to enhance the role of developing countries in the system of global economic governance, to give them real levers of control over decision-making processes. In short, it reaffirmed the need to strip the West of controlling stakes and board seats in the Bretton Woods institutions, the WTO and other agencies.
The successful start of the Brazilian presidency has outlined the current priorities – the fight against inequality in all its manifestations, the democratisation of international institutions, and providing impetus to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Russia supports many practical initiatives of President Lula's government, such as alliances to fight poverty and hunger, as well as to mobilise finance to address the climate threat. These global problems, which affect millions of people, are rapidly worsening due to the fragmentation of the global economy and the failure of international donors to meet their obligations.
The West is not only neglecting its official development assistance commitment approved in 1970 at 0.7 percent of donors' GDP, but also the further plans to invest in climate action. In reality, these plans are hardly being implemented, and instead are mostly replaced by slogans and manipulative calls to shift responsibility to the private sector or to force national governments to bear almost the entire burden.
This is especially evident in the Bretton Woods institutions, which the United States and its allies are trying to put at the service of their militaristic ambitions. The Kiev aid programme worth $15.6 billion, approved in January 2023, exceeds the six-month volume of IMF loans (577 percent of the quota). As a result of this unilateral move, financing for development in other regions of the world, particularly in Africa, is chronically deficient.
During the upcoming Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the discussion will focus on two main issues: reforming the global governance system and international tensions. The plan is to outline Russia’s approaches to the need to modernise multilateral institutions in accordance with the polycentric world reality – namely, by expanding the representation and strengthening the role of developing economies. Russia will emphasise the need to adjust the activities of the Bretton Woods institutions in terms of an expeditious redistribution of IMF voting quotas in favour of African, Asian and Latin American countries, as well as the restoration of the WTO to full capacity. The Russian side will insist that the ongoing uncontrolled diversion of international funds, intended to promote development, to finance the Ukraine conflict is unacceptable, including to the detriment of the Western powers’ commitments regarding assistance to states in need.
Russia will highlight the global and regional formats based on consensus and truly equal cooperation, including BRICS, the SCO, CELAC, LAS and the EAEU, an association that has reached the highest level of integration. As the BRICS chair in 2024, Russia plans to establish a close partnership with the G20 to achieve a cumulative effect and further strengthen the role of the countries of the Global South and East at leading multilateral platforms. Brazil, in turn, has taken the initiative to invite the New Development Bank to participate in this year’s G20 events.
When it comes to geopolitics, we will offer our principled assessments of the current international situation: the formation of a multipolar world order is progressing steadily and irreversibly; a consistent redistribution of economic potentials and centres of business activity towards the Global South and East is underway; BRICS is taking the lead in terms of growth rates, already leaving behind the stagnant Western states – a fact eloquently evidenced by Russia ranking among the world’s five largest economies and number one in Europe. In contrast, the G7 countries, as can be seen with Germany and Japan, are gradually losing their former advantage.
In this context, the West predictably seeks to maintain its dominant position in the international arena at any cost, channelling efforts to consistently hinder competitors’ growth and provoke hotbeds of tension around the world. The track record of the US and its allies includes military interventions, primarily under the auspices of NATO, as well as incitement of protest moods and “colour revolutions.” These actions have already led to utter devastation and mass casualties in many countries, including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine. At the same time, they are engaged in purposeful work to undermine the structural pillars of the world order. The universally recognised norms of international law are being replaced by some vague rules-based order, eroding the central role of the UN through the promotion of narrow opportunistic formats limited to participants that support the West.
A special group of tactics that Washington and its satellites utilise to inflict “strategic defeat” on their opponents involves tools to exert economic pressure. The standard Western arsenal, which is used, among other things, to defy Russia, includes illegitimate restrictions, the seizure of sovereign assets, and sabotage of critical infrastructure facilities, in particular, the Nord Stream gas pipelines. These practices are accompanied by unfair competition, embargoes, and the exploitation of privileged positions and levers of influence in the global governance system to gain unilateral benefits. Russia intends to reiterate to its G20 partners that it is unacceptable to weaponise international economic relations or use regional armed conflicts as an investment. That is our principled position.
During the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the Russian delegation intends to draw its partners’ attention to the unacceptability of politicising the G20, an organisation designed to focus strictly on socioeconomic challenges, according to its mandate. The G20 should not be seen as an alternative to the UN Security Council, which has exclusive prerogatives to uphold international peace and security. The inclusion of non-core issues, such as the Ukraine crisis, in the G20 agenda, at the insistence of the West, is destructive. It exacerbates discord between the parties and distances our forum from the much-needed achievements within its area of competence.
The Russian side reaffirms its commitment to active participation in the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on November 18-19; expects this meeting of leaders to be held on an inclusive basis and in compliance with the basic norms of respect for national sovereignty, immunity and privileges of all G20 heads of state; points out that it is inadmissible to make the G20 process hostage to illegitimate attempts at extraterritorial pressure and coercion, and intends to resolutely fight against this.
