PANAJI /India/, May 5. /TASS/. Russia will respond to the Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin with "concrete actions," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday following a meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers’ Council in India.
Lavrov said his SCO colleagues condemned Kiev's actions, pointed to the impossibility of resolving the Ukrainian issue by "freezing" the line of engagement in Donbass and spoke about the possibility of the organization's member countries switching to settlements in national currencies.
TASS has gathered the main statements made by the top Russian diplomat.
Interaction within SCO
The member-states of the SCO have reached an understanding on the use of national currencies in their mutual settlements: "This work is in progress, there is no stopping it now."
The organization's next summit is to take place in June-July; the timetable of the heads of states is being "finalized." A "large package of documents" is to be adopted.
Attack on Kremlin
The attack on the Kremlin is a "hostile act," which Kiev could not have carried out without the knowledge of its Western "patrons": "We will respond not with talk about whether or not this is a 'casus belli.’ We will respond with concrete actions."
Almost all of Lavrov’s discussion partners in India, when speaking about this attack, "condemned" the incident, and Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari "directly condemned the terrorist act."
Ukrainian settlement
Russia has never shied away from stepping in to settle the problems "created by the practice of the United States and its satellites to pump Ukraine with weapons with which to confront Russia," but they cannot be resolved only "by freezing the line of contact in Donbass, as some want: ‘Everyone clearly understands the inherent geopolitical nature of what has taken place.’"
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his team are doing everything they can, both in the media space and in their practical actions, so that any self-respecting country would want to keep a healthy distance from them." "This realization is growing" among Kiev's prospective interlocutors.
Situation in Afghanistan
Participants of the meeting in India agreed to activate the SCO-Afghanistan contact group, which has not met for some time because of the unclear status of the Taliban (radical movement outlawed in Russia).
The SCO expects the Afghan authorities to fulfill their promise "to ensure an inclusive government, not only in terms of ethnic groups, but also in terms of ensuring the presence of the entire spectrum of political forces," which "has not been done yet."
The US is once again trying to intervene in the country, and the situation "requires rather urgent measures." There is "convincing evidence" that the Americans are supporting "anti-Taliban terrorist groups."
Washington is also not giving up on attempts "to re-inject their military infrastructure into the region around Afghanistan and in Central Asia," and Moscow will "firmly resist" this.