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Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the SCO Foreign Ministers Council meeting, Moscow, September 10, 2020
We are glad to welcome you to the official Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Member States, and would like to extend our sincere gratitude to you for accepting our invitation to gather in the Russian capital.
This meeting opens the final stage in preparing the SCO Heads of State Council Meeting. As President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin said yesterday, it will take place in November via videoconference due to the sanitary and epidemiological situation.
Today, we will review progress in drafting documents for the summit and will discuss the priority objectives related to further strengthening and expanding our cooperation on foreign policy matters.
The coronavirus infection has triggered complex political and economic processes around the world and has had a heavy impact on the entire system of international relations, testing the resilience of country-to-country ties and multilateral institutions. Building on its rich experience in ensuring equal and fruitful cooperation in politics, economy and humanitarian ties, as well as its effective working mechanisms, the SCO has been able to come up with adequate responses to the emerging risks and threats. The SCO’s considerable potential is especially relevant today, when the pressing need for collective efforts and cooperation is felt as never before in order to overcome the political and socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We meet as the UN prepares to mark its anniversary. For 75 years, it has been the cornerstone of today’s system of international relations.
I believe that we need to discuss further steps to promote cooperation between the SCO and the UN, and ensure that our organisation makes an even greater contribution to shaping the multipolar world order with the central coordinating role of the UN and its Security Council.
The agenda for today’s meeting has been approved. I would like to thank all our staff members and experts who prepared this meeting. If there are no objections, I suggest that we get down to work, but before that we will thank our colleagues from the media for their attention to this meeting.