UNITED NATIONS, September 27 (Itar-Tass) -- It is important to renounce the complex of exceptionalism and superiority of one’s indigenous customs in the sphere of human rights, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday as he took the floor at the 68th session of the UN General Assembly.
“Negotiations are necessary in connection with other situations, too, like the ones linked to the Iranian nuclear program or the nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula,” Lavrov said.
He recalled Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent article in The New York Times where Putin urged the U.S. and other countries to stop using the language of force and to return to the track of a civilized political and diplomatic settlement of conflicts.
Lavrov said implementation of Putin’s appeal would make the international atmosphere healthier and would facilitate a buildup of the world community’s efforts to rebuff the global challenges like terrorism and drug trafficking.
Russia plans to attach priority attention to these objectives when it holds a term of rotating presidency in the G8 in 2014.
“A strengthening of the fundamentals of democracy in the countries’ domestic policies and in international relations has become a distinct mark of the time now that the rigid structure of the bipolar system is long gone,” Lavrov said.
“This means, in part, that recognition of the right of nations to determine their destiny independently and to choose the optimal models for their social/political organization and social/economic systems should turn into an unconditional norm of behavior,” he said.
“The same postulation applies to the sphere of human rights protection where the complex of exceptionalism and superiority of one’s indigenous customs should be dropped, while universal criteria spelt out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be adopted,” he said.
“Along with this, the values common for all the world religions should be respected,” Lavrov said.
“It’s quite obvious that genuine partnership is scarcely achievable without reliance on the foundation of economic cooperation,” he said. “The process creates the prerequisites for working towards harmonization of integrative processes in different parts of the globe instead of putting them into an opposition to one another and creating new lines of division in this way.”
“Our country proceeds from precisely this assumption when it works together with its partners on setting up the Eurasian Economic Community,” Lavrov said.
Russia attaches significance to achieving the millennium development goals and to forming a global agenda for development after 2015 on their basis, he said adding that the main priorities in that sphere are the eradication of poverty, support for economic growth through an expansion of opportunities for investment, and the creation of new jobs.
Particularly important in this sense is the solution of pressing problems in the energy sector and transport. No less important is the fighting with infectious diseases and the buildup of transport safety.
By pooling efforts on the basis of mutual respect and consideration of interests of all and everyone, the world community will be able to achieve the lofty goals proclaimed in the UN Charter, Lavrov said in conclusion.