West making India party to ‘anti-China’ policies like Indo-Pacific, Quad — Russian minister
Diplomacy

West making India party to ‘anti-China’ policies like Indo-Pacific, Quad — Russian minister

US has rejected the creation of a multipolar world and has launched a game to draw all others into a unipolar order, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says.

   
Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister in February, 2020 | Photographer: Carlos Becerra | Bloomberg

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, in February 2020 | Photographer: Carlos Becerra | Bloomberg

New Delhi: Taking a jibe at the US, Russia has said the West is now pushing India to play a prominent role in “anti-China” policies such as the Indo-Pacific and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue as it tries to create a unipolar world.

Speaking at the general meeting of the Russian International Affairs Council Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the US has rejected the creation of a multipolar world and has “launched a game”.

“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,” he said.

“However, 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 (military and technical cooperation) area,” Lavrov added.

In October, the Quad countries — the US, Australia, Japan and India — held an informal dialogue in Tokyo that culminated in the four countries jointly participating in the annual Malabar naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea in November.


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‘Will promote unifying agenda’

Lavrov, who has been the most vocal against the Indo-Pacific initiative, also said the US is trying to draw into its embrace all other countries and steering them away from Russia and China.

“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,” he said.

However, Russia will continue to promote a unifying agenda, he said.

“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. It represents the so-called G7, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries and the states that sooner share the philosophy of BRICS than that of the G7 (Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia and Egypt),” he said.

“The G20 is a venue where there is still hope for promoting more balanced approaches that can then be used in formal international legal structures. Our official contacts with the West have been frozen by the West. This is the line towards the prevalence of the unipolar approach. They believe that arrogant Russia has been isolated and punished,” he added.


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