UNITED NATIONS, November 9. /TASS/. Attempts by a number of countries to preserve their dominance infringe upon the principles of international law, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Friday.
"The striving of most nations for a multipolar world order encounters attempts by certain players to preserve their global dominance in a bid to enjoy unilateral advantages," he said. "They never hesitate to act in bypassing the United Nations and its Security Council, to be selective about their international commitments."
He cited a range of examples of such an approach. "What comes under attacks are the basic principles of the Middle East settlement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program, responsbilities within the World Trade Organization, the multilateral agreement on the climate change, disarmament agreements essential for strategic stability, etc.," he noted.
Such actions "devalue international law underlying the post-war world order," Nebenzya stressed. "We hear loud statements that not only call to question the validity of international agreements but declare the priority of narrow, unilateral approaches, including over UN resolutions."
According to the Russian diplomat, Western countries are seeking to substitute the supremacy of international law with the so-called "rules-based order." "But these rules are invented based on political expediency and are a vivid example of double standards," he emphasized. "Such an approach is used to impose sanctions on the states they dislike, to declare trade wars and trigger tensions in international relations."
"The continuing process of narrowing room for constructive international cooperation, fanning tensions, increased unpredictability, revision of nuclear doctrines and lowered threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, heightened risks of spontaneous conflicts - this definitely has an effect on United Nations activities," he added.