MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. Western countries are hampering global efforts toward achieving sustainable development goals (SDG) by financing conflicts, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin said.

"Among the real barriers on the path toward achieving SDGG 6 (ensuring universal access to safe and affordable drinking water, sanitation and hygiene - TASS) is a lack of financing for its development. The funds that are allocated for this are miniscule, just a fraction of the money and weapons used to ‘feed’ conflicts," he said at a Group of Twenty ministerial meeting.

According to the senior Russian diplomat, countries of the global South cannot get the loans they need, have to pay high interest rates and tolerate the transfer of borrowed resources into the public debt to Western countries. "The seizure of government assets and private property as part of unilateral sanctions has a negative effect on the prospects for the resolution of water problems," he stressed.

Another problem, in his words, is that the bulk of technologies owned by developed countries and badly needed in developing states "are patented and sold at prohibitively high prices, making it next to impossible to get them where they are needed the most."

The meeting was held in Rio de Janeiro on July 22.