MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. Russia, India and China (RIC countries) will stand against any counterproductive actions, illegitimate use of force and interference into domestic affairs by other states and will continue coordinating efforts on multilateral forums, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters Tuesday following a video conference with his Indian and Chinese counterparts Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Wang Yi.
According to Lavrov, the parties "in detail reviewed the situation on the world arena mainly through the prism of the coronavirus epidemic outbreak but also more broadly." "We acknowledged that the pandemic significantly affected many aspects of international relations, dealt a massive blow to global economy and tangibly reduced inter-personal contacts in general," he added.
"In this context, we expressed concerns about destructive policies of a number of states aimed at demolishing the architecture of global security established in the post-war period, with the UN Charter being its cornerstone as it has been and still is. We believe <…> that unilateral actions, illegitimate use of force, interference into domestic affairs of sovereign states and attempts to extraterritorially apply national legislations are counterproductive. I am certain that our three countries will continue opposing these negative trends and will carry on boosting coordination on various multilateral forums," Lavrov said.
The Russian minister also emphasized close work of the three states in G20, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). "Of course, our three countries in the UN coordinate their steps on many issues. This coordination will be increasingly in demand in the next two years, as India assumes its seat as non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2021-2022," Lavrov stressed.