MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. BRICS has obtained greater global influence following its latest summit in South Africa on August 22-24, and the group’s integrative potential is vitally needed for revitalizing the central role of the UN, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an article titled "Respecting the Principles of the UN Charter as the Key to International Peace and Stability."
"Every effort to reform the United Nations should be aimed at asserting the rule of international law and restoring the organization as the central coordinating body of global politics," Russia’s top diplomat wrote in the article. He urged that efforts be made to utilize the potential of new types of international associations that reflect the interests of the Global South. "These primarily include BRICS, which has enhanced its authority following the summit in Johannesburg and which has acquired global influence," he emphasized.
Lavrov pointed to what he said was a regional renaissance of the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Arab League, and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, among others. "Integration processes have been becoming increasingly harmonious as part of the SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organization], ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations], the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization], the EAEU [Eurasian Economic Union], the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] and China’s One Belt, One Road initiative," he added.
Also, Lavrov said, it is high time to consider more equitable ways of forming the UN Secretariat because the criteria that have been in place for years no longer reflect the real weight that numerous countries now wield in world affairs while the current format artificially upholds the excessive dominance of citizens of NATO and EU countries. "These disproportions are getting increasingly worse due to the existence of a system of permanent contracts that bind their holders to adhere to the positions of those countries that host the headquarters of international organizations, almost all of which are based in capitals that pursue the policies of the West," Lavrov concluded.