MOSCOW, November 9. /TASS/. Western nations demonstrate double standards with regard to recognizing the independence of Serbia’s Kosovo region and the Comoro Island of Mayotte, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday following talks with his Comorian counterpart, Souef Mohamed El-Amine.
"We noted today that in 1975, the Comoro Islands became a UN member as a single unit (all four islands - TASS). This decision by the UN General Assembly is the basis for an approach towards this issue from the point of view of international law," the minister stressed.
"Those countries, which organized Kosovo’s breakaway from Serbia and Mayotte’s secession from the Comoro Islands, have repeatedly sought regime change in those countries where they believed that it had to be done, violating international law," Lavrov stressed.
"They give us a glaring example of double standards. I do hope that a decision will be made to abandon this practice once and for all during the debates on international relations in the current era."
According to Russia’s top diplomat, France did not recognize the island of Mayotte’s independence, and, despite numerous General Assembly resolutions, it continues to govern it illegitimately.
In December 1974, the Comoro Islands, which was a French colony before WWII and became an overseas territory of France in 1946, held an independence referendum. Three of the islands making up the Comoros - Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli - voted for independence. However, 60% of the population of the island of Mayotte with a predominantly Christian population voted against independence.
On July 6, 1975, the Comoros unilaterally declared independence, and the UN General Assembly recognized its rights to all four islands and demanded that France leave the territory of an independent state. However, Paris ignored the UN resolution declaring its claims to Mayotte. In 2009, it decided to transform the island into a French overseas department.