Lavrov slams ‘Russophobia’ of G7 summit

By Joaquin Flores On Apr 24, 2018

BEIJING, China – Commenting on the outcome of the meeting of G7 foreign ministers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke with no lack of clarity earlier today, April 24th. He spoke out that the Russophobic connotations in the work of the G7 are obvious, and added that Moscow is ready to patiently defend its position.

“As for the outcome of the meeting of foreign ministers in Toronto, of course, the Russophobic connotations there are obvious,” he said in comments to Russian news agencies.

“We will patiently defend our position, wait until our partners realize that such policy is a dead end,” he added.

He also was clear that the purpose and issues discussed by the G7 runs parallel with those which exist now in other formats, in comments which seemed to properly contextualize the present role of the forum.

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“Political, military and political issues are discussed in the UN Security Council, generally within the UN, and economic issues, of course, cannot be resolved outside the framework of the Group of Twenty,” Lavrov said.

Expectedly, Russia was the main topic on the agenda of the two-day meeting of the G7 Foreign Ministers, and was apparently discussed in a problematic way.

As has been standard, it was attended by representatives of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan and the United States, as well as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. According to their statement, the countries could impose new sanctions against the Russian Federation because of the situation in Donbass, and accused Moscow of destabilizing the situation in the world. The G7 doesn’t have any authority, but has served as a vehicle where top foreign ministers could combine structured sessions with casual discussions, where any number of off-record possibilities or projects may be discussed.

The G7 was previously the G8 and included Russia. A march of experts and former PM’s from European states have criticized the move by the group to exclude Russia several years ago, surrounding the Crimea referendum and the war in the Donbass.

The meeting of foreign ministers of the G7 countries was held in Toronto, Canada, on April 22-23. A meeting of G7 foreign and security ministers is held on April 23-24. Canada holds the G7 Presidency from January 1 to December 31, 2018.