Anti-Russian sanctions can be lifted - Lavrov
In connection with the coronavirus pandemic, the UN and many other international organizations are demanding the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions that impede international cooperation to counter the humanitarian catastrophe.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated this during a press conference in Moscow, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The lifting of anti-Russian sanctions may be directly related to the coronavirus pandemic. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated this very clearly.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has taken the same initiative, explicitly calling for, in the context of the mobilization of efforts to combat the coronavirus, among other measures, the abandonment of unilateral sanctions that impede the supply of medical goods and other essential items that ordinary people desperately need to follow doctors' recommendations.
Unilateral sanctions themselves are illegitimate. And sanctions that reduce the ability to counter the pandemic, and which were adopted bypassing the Security Council, are absolutely immoral and inhumane,” Lavrov noted.
He added that many other states and international organizations have joined the initiative to lift sanctions.
“It is important that the unacceptability of unilateral sanctions, especially those affecting the humanitarian interests of ordinary people, acquire some kind of international agreement.
At the UN General Assembly, the first resolution was adopted with the principles of the fight against coronavirus, and I think that another resolution will follow. A joint statement by the Group of 77 and China was adopted and distributed as an official UN document, which was fully supported by Russia, and it very clearly stated the inadmissibility of unilateral sanctions, especially in conditions when such a threat looms over all of humanity,” added diplomat, adding that the Security Council is obliged to consider the problem of illegitimate sanctions.
The Russian Foreign Minister also emphasized that Moscow does not intend to seek the lifting of sanctions at any cost.
“Therefore, we are completely against sanctions that are adopted in circumvention of the UN Charter. But we will not make it a priority for our relations with the EU to abolish them at any cost. No, we will patiently focus on the creative agenda within our country and in terms of developing relations with those who are ready for this without any reservations. And there are many such countries in the EU,” Lavrov concluded.
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