MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. Attempts to create alternative partnerships and alliances to discuss key international policy issues outside universal formats under the auspices of the UN contradict the world organization's charter, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference on Tuesday following talks with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
"We talked about the fate of the UN as a whole, about the attempts of our Western colleagues, first of all, to take the discussion of key issues beyond the framework of universal formats under the auspices of the UN and its system, to produce various partnerships, various appeals, which are presented as a front-runners club, a club of the chosen ones," he said.
According to Russian Foreign Minister, the initiative of France and Germany to create an alliance of multilateralists is of the same sort. "What is this but competition with the UN?" he questioned, "Or the initiative of the United States, which last year held a summit of democracies, where they chose who to invite, without consulting anyone, which also, and we have drawn the attention of our interlocutors today, is a dangerous wake-up call for the UN, an attempt to cross out the basic rules of the UN Charter, the basic principle of the UN Charter, namely, that the organization was created on the basis of the sovereign equality of states."
"It is written in the UN Charter, people should be reminded about it, and we will do it more often so that no one in New York or in the capitals of member states will forget about it," Lavrov stressed.