LONDON, June 28. /TASS/. Russia has managed to strengthen partner relations with a number of key countries in Asia and Africa in recent months, despite the Group of Seven’s attempts at isolating Moscow on the global arena, the British Daily Mirror said on Tuesday.
"Whilst the G7 dithers, Putin is rebuilding his strategic power," it wrote. "China, Egypt, India, and Saudi Arabia are all strengthening their relationships with the Kremlin, despite the West's warnings."
The newspaper drew attention to the fact that China continues to strengthen partnership with Russia, in particular, on economic and defense issues, while India and South Africa are refusing to discuss Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. Moreover, Indonesia has refused to join the anti-Russian sanctions and invited President Vladimir Putin to attend the Group of Twenty summit in November.
"In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iran still maintain good relations with Moscow; and, along with Xi, Egypt’s President el-Sisi this month addressed the St Petersburg International Economic Forum," it wrote, adding that Sri Lanka sent its ministers to Russia to negotiate purchases of Russian oil.
The newspaper pointed to a "striking contrast" between Russia’s and the West’s foreign policy activities, when the G7 summit in Germany addressed "irrelevant pet projects — such as President Macron’s grandstanding "European Political Community", a kind of second class EU that some believe is intended to mollify countries like Ukraine, Moldova and North Macedonia as they sit out the interminable process of actually joining with Brussels."
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country. After that, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and a number of other countries imposed large-scale anti-Russian sanctions and increased weapons supplies to Ukraine.