MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. Multipolarity is here to stay on the international stage; at some point, we'll still have to agree on how new major players will interact with each other, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference summarizing Russian diplomatic activities in 2025.

"Multipolarity as an objective trend is here to stay. It can't simply be placed under some unipolar or bipolar umbrella. There are already too many centers of economic growth," he said.

According to Lavrov, the current "centers of growth reflect an objective historical process - economic development, infrastructure development, the use of natural resources, and much more."

"Therefore, at some point, we'll still have to agree on how these new major players - whether national or regional - will interact within integration structures," he noted.

Lavrov recalled that "when multipolarity began to gain ground as a major trend, many political scientists and journalists said nothing good would come of it, because it would be tantamount to a return to chaos in international affairs."

"They said that when the world was bipolar, split between the Soviet Union and the United States, everything was clear and simple. There were some peripheral conflicts, but these conflicts didn't affect the core of this bipolar world order. When the world turned unipolar, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it also seemed clear to everyone - we just had to listen and not get too active," he pointed out.

"But is it true what they predicted about a multipolar world, when they said it would plunge into chaos? Looking at the current picture, you can probably find many who support this assessment, but the process never freezes at any one point," Lavrov emphasized.

New centers of growth

The Russian foreign minister cited China, India, and Brazil as examples. "Africa is already beginning to experience a second awakening, a realization that political independence hasn't come with economic independence, and that Africa continues to be exploited by neocolonial methods. Former colonial powers, having granted political independence to their former colonies, continue to live off them. This realization is now taking root on the African continent. We sense this daily from our numerous contacts with African countries," Lavrov noted.