MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are becoming more popular among developing countries because they are a new type of association without heavy-handed discipline like in NATO and the EU, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
"We continue to interact with developing countries, as we say, with the countries of the global majority, not only on a bilateral basis but also within the framework of various multilateral structures. I would like to mention, in particular, the dialogue along the line of BRICS and the SCO. There is no heavy-handed discipline there like we observe in NATO and the European Union, there are no leaders and followers, and decisions are made on the basis of a true genuine balance of interests thereby fully complying with the requirements of the UN Charter on respecting the sovereign equality of nations," he told a meeting of the United Russia Party commission on international cooperation and support for compatriots abroad.
Lavrov stressed that "experience shows that precisely this serves as one of the main factors which attracts an increasing number of countries to foster ties and in the end join these novel unions."
"We are developing relations both with the League of Arab States and with the African Union, as well as with many regional and subregional unions on the African continent," he added. "Our interaction is also developing well with Latin American structures, for instance, with the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) and with the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) which interacts with the Eurasian Economic Union while with the alliance which unites all countries in the region, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), we also have a format of ministerial dialogue," he explained.
The Russian top diplomat lamented that "many of these processes have been put on pause because of coronavirus restrictions." "Now all of this will resume," he assured.