⚡️Main Foreign Policy Outcomes of 2022⚡️

The year 2022 saw history-making events, such as the emergence of a new international reality, and became a turning point for Russia’s foreign policy.

👉 The recognition of the Donetsk & Lugansk People’s Republics, the start of the Special Military Operation in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, the referendums held in the DPR & LPR and the liberated territories of the Zaporozhye & Kherson regions and their subsequent integration into Russia – these events will forever go down in the history of Russia.

They put an end to 30 years of Russia’s honest attempts to develop equitable relations with the collective West.

✍️ Russia & other like-minded countries adopted a political declaration in support of the inviolability of the UN Charter.

✍️ An overwhelming majority of states members of the UN GA approved the annual Russia-initiated resolution on combating the glorification of Nazism.

✍️ At Russia’s initiative, the Joint Statement of the Leaders of the 5 Nuclear-Weapon States on Preventing Nuclear War & Avoiding Arms Races was adopted in January 2022.

✅ International cooperation within the framework of the #EAEU, #SCO & #BRICS made rapid headway.

✅ Allied relations with Belarus continued to grow stronger.

✅ Several major initiatives have been implemented within the framework of the #CIS aimed at strengthening integration ties in all spheres of the organisation’s activities.

✅ The mechanisms of the #CSTO operated efficiently.

Russian diplomats have significantly stepped up efforts to achieve the peaceful settlement of international conflicts. Russia extensively supported stabilising the situation in Afghanistan. Russia has promoted a complex approach to the Syrian dossier, including within the Astana format. We have promoted comprehensive normalisation of the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

We have successfully developed ties with our many international partners who are interested in maintaining a constructive dialogue with Russia.

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🌐 Today is International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace.

On December 12, 2018, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution A/RES/73/127 on marking this day. The document notes that the International Day aims to promote UN values and to reaffirm the trust of the world’s nations in the goals and principles of the UN Charter.

🇷🇺🇺🇳 Russia is invariably committed to the policy of upholding multilateralism and the UN’s leading role in global affairs and is actively involved in efforts to overhaul the UN and to adapt it to new international realities.

This is particularly topical today when a narrow group of states advancing the rules-based order concept exerts unprecedented pressure on the UN and other multilateral institutions.

✍️ Under the Russian Foreign Policy Concept, approved on March 31, 2023, Russia intends to prioritise efforts to reinstate the UN’s role as a central coordination mechanism in coordinating the interests of UN member states.

At the same time, one of the main aims of national foreign policy is to strengthen the potential of multilateral regional associations and integration organisations involving Russia. For example, this refers to measures to enhance the international role of #BRICS, the #SCO, the #CIS, the #EAEU, the #CSTO, #RIC and other interstate associations and international organisations, as well as mechanisms with significant Russian involvement.

⏰ Today, on April 24, FM Sergey Lavrov will take part in one of the key events of Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council, specifically, the open debate on "Effective multilateralism through the defence of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations." The debate will be streamed live on all our feeds.

#UNCharterIsOurRules #Multilateralism

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's video address to the participants and organisers of the World Online Conference on Multipolarity (Moscow, April 29, 2023)

Key talking points:

🌐 Today, the movement towards global multipolarity is a fact, a geopolitical reality.

☝️ We see new global centres, primarily in Eurasia, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, grow and achieve impressive success in various fields relying on their independence, state sovereignty and cultural and civilisational identity.

• We are witnessing the continued transformation of the structure of international relations. A striking example of multipolar diplomacy is the work of multilateral associations of a new type such as the SCO and BRICS.

❗️ It makes perfect sense that Washington and its satellites’ efforts to reverse the course of history and make the international community live according to the “rules-based order” they invented are failing. I will mention only one of them, the Westerners’ policy to isolate Russia.

• In today's multipolar world, in the face of cross-border challenges and threats, the only reasonable alternative to confrontation (those who initiate confrontations will lose, too) is to combine the efforts of key global centres on the principles of the UN Charter, including respect for the sovereign equality of states ensured in practice. Everyone needs to recognise the irreversibility of the emergence of a more equitable polycentric international system.

🇷🇺 Russia remains at the forefront of international efforts to strengthen the multipolar, legal and democratic principles of interstate communication. <...> We will certainly continue to closely coordinate our steps with our numerous friends, allies and countries that share our views, including our partners in the #CSTO, the #EAEU, the #CIS, #BRICS, the #SCO and other regional associations of the developing world.

#UNCharterIsOurRules

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the 11th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues

📍 Moscow, May 24, 2023

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Key points:

🔹 International relations are going through truly crucial and tectonic shifts. The idea of one country or even a group of countries dominating the world has sunk into oblivion.

🔹 The countries from the Global South and the Global East are primarily guided by their core national priorities rather than the self-serving interests of former colonial powers and are consistently strengthening their positions right before our eyes. Multilateral diplomacy is part of the general trend as well. The democratisation of international life is facilitated by associations of a new type, such as the #SCO, #BRICS, and the #EAEU. In the long run, all of that should bring about a more balanced, sustainable, and inclusive international order.

🔹 In an attempt to achieve global domination, Washington and its satellites do not hesitate to use any means ranging from unilateral sanctions to media wars.

🔹 The Western elites seek to internationalise these “rules”, which no one has ever seen and which, by definition, cannot be legally binding. Their goal is clear and it is to destroy the existing international legal system and to hold back the development of new world centres in the hope of being able to stick to their colonial policies as they continue to deal with their issues at other countries’ expense.

🔹 Russia, the largest Eurasian and Euro-Pacific power and one of the world’s leading centres, has consistently advocated the consolidation of the international community in countering pressing security challenges.

🎙 Interview by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova with RT on the sidelines of XXVI St. Petersburg International Economic Forum

Key topics:

🔹 Strikes by Ukraine’s Armed Forces against the Kakhovskaya dam
🔹 Prospects of Russian-German contacts
🔹 Relations between Russia and neighboring countries
🔹 Potential #BRICS candidates
🔹 #RussiaAfrica ties
🔹 Peace initiatives on Ukraine
🔹 Black Sea Initiative
🔹 Relations with the EU countries
🔹 2024 US presidential elections

🎥 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with RT TV Channel on the sidelines of the 26th St Petersburg International Economic Forum (St Petersburg, June 16, 2023)

Key talking points:

🔹 We can no longer rely on the promises and the agreements signed with the West which were presented as a foundation for developing constructive partnership. <...> The West has “lost” Russia at this point of history.

🔹 The dominant trend today is the awareness of the need to regionalise the development processes. This includes the #SCO and, in a wider sense, the Greater Eurasian Partnership, which President Vladimir Putin mentioned at the #RussiaASEAN Summit a few years ago.

🔹 The Anglo-Saxons and their ilk are bringing pressure to bear across the board, including on our closest #CSTO allies. The Gulf Arab countries are not an exception. I would say that the Western methods are boorish. I cannot think of another word.

🔹 Our relations with the Africans and our other partners are not based on money. What we are trying to do is identify projects that meet the interests of both sides.

🔹 #BRICS will expand, with the countries representing major Arab, or Islamic civilisation in a broader sense, joining it. This will strengthen the multipolar principles that we are discussing now and that are objectively taking shape.

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🎙 President Vladimir Putin took part, via videoconference, in the XV BRICS Summit (August 23, 2023)

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💬 I would like to begin by thanking our South African friends for everything they have done as part of their #BRICS chairmanship this year.

Those of my colleagues who took the floor before me praised BRICS for its efforts, and overall we share this assessment. This association of five nations has established itself on the international stage as a respected entity and has been consistently strengthening its standing in international affairs.

BRICS has been following a forward-looking strategic course which meets the aspirations of a significant portion of the international community, the so-called global majority. By acting in a coordinated manner and based on the principles of equality, supporting each other as partners and taking each other’s interests into account, we tackle the most urgent issues on the global and regional agendas.

🌍 Importantly, we are all united in our commitment to shaping a multipolar world order with genuine justice, based on the international law and in keeping with the key principles set forth in the UN Charter, including sovereignty and respecting the right of every nation to follow its own development model. We oppose hegemonies of any kind and the exceptional status that some countries aspire to, as well as the new policy it entails, a policy of continued neo-colonialism.

Let me point out that it was the attempts by some countries to preserve their global hegemony that paved the way to the deep crisis in Ukraine. <...>

☝️ Russia decided to side with people who are fighting for their culture, their traditions, language and future. Stopping the war unleashed by the West and its satellites in Ukraine against the people of Donbass is the only thing that defines our actions in Ukraine.

📄 XV BRICS Summit Johannesburg II Declaration (Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa, August 23, 2023)

Read in full (Telegraph: part I, part II)

✍️ We, the Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa met in Sandton, South Africa, from 22 to 24 August 2023 for the XV BRICS Summit held under the theme: "BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism".

We reaffirm our commitment to the #BRICS spirit of mutual respect and understanding, sovereign equality, solidarity, democracy, openness, inclusiveness, strengthened collaboration and consensus. As we build upon 15 years of BRICS Summits, we further commit ourselves to strengthening the framework of mutually beneficial BRICS cooperation under the three pillars:

✅ political and security;
✅ economic and financial;
✅cultural and people-to-people cooperation;

and to enhancing our strategic partnership for the benefit of our people through the promotion of peace, a more representative, fairer international order, a reinvigorated and reformed multilateral system, sustainable development and inclusive growth.

Key points:

🇺🇳 We support a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more democratic, representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries in the Council’s memberships.

• We are concerned about ongoing conflicts in many parts of the world. We stress our commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences and disputes through dialogue and inclusive consultations.

• We have decided to invite Argentina 🇦🇷, Egypt 🇪🇬, Ethiopia 🇪🇹, Iran 🇮🇷, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 and the UAE 🇦🇪 to become full members of BRICS from 1 January 2024.

🇧🇷🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 Brazil, India, China and South Africa extend their full support to Russia 🇷🇺 for its BRICS Chairship in 2024 and the holding of the XVI BRICS Summit in the city of Kazan, Russia.

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions following the 21th Doha Forum, 10 December 2023

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💬 The domination of the “collective West” was based on diverse history including ruthless exploitation of peoples and territories of other countries.

On the basis of this five hundred years, the US & its allies built the model of globalization, which they believed would serve THEM well to continue to be number one in economy, in military exercises, in culture, politics, and so on and so forth. And they thought that they would be using this globalization scheme to continue their domination.

However, other countries, using exactly the principles and instruments of the western globalization, managed to beat the West on its own turf, building economies on the basis of national sovereignty, on the basis of balance of interests with other countries.

<...>

We see this process very much underway, which is clearly changing the balance of power in the world, and not to the West liking.

This is especially seen in various conflicts which the West ignites all over the world. Everything goes to keep the hegemony.

<...>

❓ The analysis of all these events raises a question: is there a single place where the US intervened with military force, where life has become better?

I think you know the answer 👉 Ruined statehood, human tragedies, and bleak prospects for the future of the countries where the Americans & NATO interfered.

<...>

We have to accept the existence of new organizations, new formats, new structures like #BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, #ASEAN, #AfricanUnion, and many subregional organizations in Africa, CELAC and subregional groups in Latin America. They are going to be the bricks of the new polycentric world. This must be recognized as an objective course of history and this must be respected. This is something which we actually miss when we analyse the modern Western diplomacy. But this is for the West to draw conclusions.

📰 Aide to the President of Russia for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov's interview with TASS (March 5, 2024)

Key talking points:

💬 Cooperation within #BRICS is undoubtedly one of the key features of Russia's long-term foreign policy.

• Russia, as the current president of the organization, has a special responsibility to ensure the fastest and smoothest integration of the new members into the operation of all BRICS mechanisms. This is undoubtedly a cornerstone and high priority task of our Presidency.

• In the relatively short period of its existence, the BRICS association has rapidly developed and transformed into an extensive multi-level mechanism of interaction on a wide range of issues on the global agenda.

🌐 Many perceive BRICS as a prototype of multipolarity, a structure uniting the Global South and East on the principles of equality, sovereignty and mutual respect.

• Support for the principles of multipolarity and a greater role of developing countries in global governance, as well as the fundamental values of the BRICS group, such as the spirit of equality, mutual respect, openness, inclusiveness and constructive cooperation, is an indispensable condition [for joining BRICS].

• We see increasing the role of BRICS counties in the international currency and financial system as a specific task for this year. <...> We believe that creating an independent BRICS payment system is an important goal for the future.

• There has never been a military aspect to cooperation within our group. <...> BRICS does not have plans to build such cooperation, including military drills.

☝️ Russia has never set BRICS in opposition to other international platforms, be it the Group of 20 or the Group of Seven. We believe that the association is unique.

• The recipe for BRICS’ attractiveness and success is based on the absence of a confrontational or “hidden” agenda. I will repeat that it brings together like-minded countries.

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📸 #FamilyPhoto

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov takes part in family photo ceremony together with the heads of delegations, partner countries, invited states and executive bodies of international organizations and structures at the XVII #BRICS Summit

📍 Rio de Janeiro, July 7

#BRICS2025

🎙 Statement by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on the sidelines of the High-Level Week of the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly (New York, September 25, 2025)

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Mr Chairman,

I express my gratitude for this initiative, which is becoming a tradition – to conduct G20 ministerial meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Our meeting is taking place in the year of two landmark anniversaries.

#Victory80 #UN80

80 years ago – with my country playing a pivotal role – German Nazism and Japanese militarism were defeated, with the People’s Republic of China making a particularly significant contribution to overcoming the latter.

This Victory enabled the establishment of the United Nations, whose founding fathers charged it with the mission to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” and “promote social progress.” Reliance on the principles enshrined in the UN Charter in their entirety, comprehensiveness, and interrelationship guarantees peaceful, progressive development of all States without exception – both large and small.

☝️ Refusal to adhere to the principles of the Charter reveals neo-colonial ambitions, fuelling global instability and multiplying regional conflicts.

For decades, numerous crises in Africa – many inherited from colonial times, when borders were drawn literally with a ruler and without regard for ethno-religious factors – have remained unresolved.

Another glaring example is the crisis in Ukraine, provoked by the West, which NATO and the EU have transformed into a direct war against my country, actively participating in it.

The escalation in the Middle East also fits this pattern. The unprecedented and horrific humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has already claimed 65'000 lives. Some UN staff working in the region cite estimates suggesting casualties may be ten times higher. None of Israel’s neighbours can feel secure. We witness this daily.

In turn, unilateral economic sanctions – grossly violating the UN Charter – tariff wars, outright blackmail of international trade participants, and brazen breaches of WTO rules not only strike at the most vulnerable and unprotected groups of population but also pose a serious threat to the global economy through, inter alia, market fragmentation and supply chain disruptions.

This December we will mark the 65th anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Clearly, genuine democratisation of the world order and global economic relations would serve humanity’s interests.

The steadily increasing role and importance of such multilateral global governance structures as #BRICS and the #SCO signify the formation of a multipolar world and exemplify equitable diplomacy.

Even before its expansion, BRICS nations’ share of global GDP by purchasing power parity was twice that of the G7. At the BRICS Summit in Kazan in October 2024, specific proposals were put forward to establish new settlement infrastructure and independent exchange and investment mechanisms. Work has commenced on establishing the SCO development bank. These initiatives should enhance economic cooperation among the Global Majority nations, shielding them from unfair competition.

I would like to emphasise the vast potential of the G20. Its composition reflects contemporary geopolitical realities, encompassing both dynamic emerging centres of growth and influence, including BRICS states, and G7 countries. We urge the swift implementation of prior G20 agreements to amplify the roles of Global South and East nations in the IMF and World Bank, proportionate to their actual weight in global economy and finance.

<...>

We maintain that the G20 must – as originally intended – focus on economic issues, avoiding entanglement in military and political agendas to the detriment of the prerogatives of the United Nations and its Security Council.

📺 Remarks by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the General Debate of 80th Session of the UN General Assembly.

Key points (Unofficial translation):

• 80 years ago the most terrible war in human history came to an end. More than 70 million people fell victim to hostilities, hunger and disease. In 1945 the course of world history changed forever. We hold sacred the memory of brotherhood-in-arms with all Allies who then stood on the side of truth in the struggle against the forces of evil.

• #UNCharterIsOurRules The principles and the Charter agreed upon by the founding fathers of our Organization still serve as a bright beacon for international cooperation.

• We advocate for the unconditional observance of the principle of equality. In it lies the guarantee that all countries can take their rightful place in world affairs, regardless of their military power, population size, territory or economy.

• Russia strongly condemned the Hamas militants’ attack on peaceful Israelis on October 7, 2023. However, there is no justification for the brutal killing of Palestinian civilians, just as there is no justification for terrorism.

• The Arabic language is not banned in Israel, nor is Hebrew in Arab countries or Iran – but the Russian language is banned in Ukraine. Let me recall that Article 1 of the Charter speaks of the need to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion. Europe remains silent, obsessed with the utopian goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.

• The rights of Russians and Russian-speaking people in the territories still under the control of the Kiev regime must be fully restored. On this basis we are ready to discuss the security guarantees for Ukraine.

• Russia and the US bear a special responsibility for world affairs, for avoiding risks that could plunge humanity into a new war.

• The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (#SCO) and #BRICS play a special role as mechanisms for coordination of countries of the Global South and East.

• NATO is already cramped in Europe, and it is expanding into the Pacific Ocean, the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, undermining the universal ASEAN mechanisms and creating threats not only to China and Russia but also to other countries in the region.

• Speaking of the future, we must not forget the lessons of the past – especially when Nazism is once again raising its head in Europe, militarization is gaining momentum under the same anti-Russian slogans. This causes particular concern given that a number of political figures, now in power in Brussels and certain EU and NATO capitals, seriously discuss World War III as a possible scenario.

• We call on member states and the Secretariat’s leadership to scrupulously follow all the Charter’s principles – without exception and without double standards. Then the legacy of the UN’s founding fathers will not be wasted.

Watch / Read — English subs included 👆

⚡️ Article by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, “International Cooperation in the Arctic: Challenges and Opportunities,” published on Arctic.ru

📰 Read in full

✍️ On 19 August, a landmark event took place in Arctic shipping. For the first time, a container ship from China arrived at the port of Murmansk via the Northern Sea Route, a vital part of the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor. In collaboration with our international partners this represents the start of a new phase in the development of Russia’s Arctic region, which accounts for at least 10 percent of the country’s GDP and is home to more than 2.5 million of our citizens.

In this regard, I would like to share a number of considerations on how we assess the current state of affairs in the Arctic and how we plan to develop international cooperation there.

***

Russia and international partners in the Arctic

• The Foundations of the Russian State Policy in the Arctic for the Period up to 2035, approved by President Vladimir Putin, focus the efforts of all government bodies on improving the quality of life for the population of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, promoting economic growth in its territories, protecting the environment and fostering mutually beneficial international cooperation. <...> Foreign policy priorities in high latitudes have been enshrined in the currently effective Concept of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation of March 31, 2023.

• In the Arctic, Russia is seeking to preserve peace and stability, reduce the level of threats to national security, and create favourable external conditions for the country’s socio-economic development. We are open to interaction with all constructively minded foreign countries displaying reciprocal readiness to put these ideas into practice.

• The countries that cooperate closely with us in the Arctic include, first and foremost, China and India. <...> There are prospects for interaction in the Far North with Brazil, Indonesia, Iran and other #BRICS countries.

Challenges for international cooperation in the Arctic

• Preserving the Arctic as an area of peace and cooperation meets the interests of the entire international community, and Russia is undoubtedly interested in this as well.

• Meanwhile, there are those who do not share this point of view. How else can one explain the fact that NATO countries, as well as the Alliance as a whole, are driving the region towards militarisation and creating hotbeds of international tension there? <...> NATO is conducting large-scale military exercises involving non-regional countries and introducing new components of its command-and-control system.

• Such military activity in the Far North poses a direct threat to Russia’s security. <...> NATO and other Western countries make no secret of their true motives, openly declaring their intention to turn the Arctic into a new front for opposing the development of Russia and its like-minded partners.

• One manifestation of the West’s anti-Russian policy has been the disruption of previously effective mechanisms of multilateral cooperation in the Far North. <...> The Arctic Council, established almost 30 years ago, on September 19, 1996, remains the only functioning intergovernmental format. Russia is ready to resume the full-fledged work of the Arctic Council, provided that all parties engage in good faith and take into account the legitimate interests of every participant.

The future of international cooperation in the Arctic

• A glance at the world map makes it clear that Russia has been, is, and will remain a leading Arctic state. <...> The strategic importance of the Arctic to our country’s national interests and security will also continue to grow.

• In our economic activities, we will continue to proceed from the understanding that the Arctic maritime areas form an integral part of the World Ocean.

• Russia’s foreign policy in the Arctic will remain comprehensive and pragmatic. We support the Arctic’s development as an integral part of the broader Eurasian space of security and cooperation.