New Delhi (NVI): Amidst the India-China stand-off, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Western powers have adopted an “aggressive” and “devious” policy to engage India in “anti-China games by promoting Indo-Pacific strategies”.
Lavrov has accused the western powers of trying to undermine Russia’s close partnership and privileged relations with India.
“Obviously, the West is trying to restore the unipolar model of world order. “Poles” like Russia and China are unlikely to be subordinate to it. However, India is currently an object of the Western countries’ persistent, aggressive & devious policy,” Lavrov said at the general meeting of the state-run think tank Russian International Affairs Council.
The Russian foreign minister’s remarks reflected Moscow’s traditional suspicion of the Indi-Pacific concept.
He further said that rejecting the objective trends towards the formation of a multipolar world, the US-led West has launched a “game.” “It has postponed Russia and China for later and is trying to draw all others into a unipolar world by any means possible.”
“For our part, we will promote a unifying agenda. The #G20 is the only mechanism outside the @UN Security Council where it is still possible to come to terms based on a balance of interests,” Lavrov said while criticising the Western and European powers for their “notorious concept”.
“India is currently an object of the Western countries’ persistent, aggressive and devious policy as they are trying to engage it in anti-China games by promoting Indo-Pacific strategies, the so-called “Quad” while at the same time the West is attempting to undermine our close partnership and privileged relations with India. This is the goal of the US’ very tough pressure on New Delhi in the MTC area,” Lavrov said in his remarks at the general meeting of the Russian International Affairs Council.
He said, “Our official contacts with the West have been frozen by the West (I will not explain why since this is common knowledge). This is the line towards the prevalence of the unipolar approach. They believe that ‘arrogant Russia’ has been ‘isolated’ and ‘punished’.”
Notably, the Russian foreign minister’s comments came against the backdrop of tensions amid India and China over border row in Eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control, even as Russia has been nudging both the countries to resolve the issue through talks.
-ARK
