JAKARTA /Indonesia/, July 13. /TASS/. The West acts exclusively in its own self-interest, and nothing will ever help it realize the harm behind cluster munitions supplies for Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Thursday.
"I don’t think anything will ever help the West see how criminal or counterproductive or even illegitimate what they have been doing sometimes is. The West will tackle specific issues depending on what suits them politically at any given moment. These are the rules which it wants the world order to be based on and which vary from time to time," Lavrov said. He was asked to comment on whether the South Asian countries which were victimized by cluster munitions could help the West see the criminality of its actions.
Russia’s top diplomat recalled the serious implications from the use of these weapons during the anticolonial wars in Laos and Cambodia. "Demining is ongoing. We are offering active assistance to Laos, and we regularly train large numbers of demining experts for Laos, with our technology being actively used [there]," he said.
Lavrov said that he had discussed the US’ plans to send cluster munitions to Ukraine with his Laotian counterpart Saleumxay Kommasith and that the Laotian Foreign Ministry had issued a corresponding statement cautioning Washington against such a risky step.
On July 7, the Biden administration announced a decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite the fact that the United Nations opposed the use of such munitions. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Kiev had issued written assurances to Washington that these weapons would be used in a way so as to minimize risks to civilians.
When detonated in the air, cluster munitions scatter dozens of small bomblets over an area of dozens of square meters. If unexploded immediately, these bomblets pose a threat to civilians long after the end of any conflict. The Convention on Cluster Munitions was signed in 2008. To date, 111 countries have joined it, while another 12 nations have signed the document but have yet to ratify it.