On June 12, 2024 Russia is celebrating its National Day, the Day of State Sovereignty. Today’s Russia is a vibrant multiethnic, multireligious society, nurturing harmony, based on mutual respect and recognition of all ethnicities. Notwithstanding the sanctions, illegally imposed on Russia by the collective West and its supporters, including Singapore, Russian economy shows significant progress with its GDP growing on 3,6% in 2023 and 5,4% for the first three months of 2024. This is in line with the current geopolitical posture, where BRICS, the group of emerging economies, seeking more just and balanced world, outnumbers on GDP volumes, populations and speed of growth the US-led G7 grouping – the cornerstone of the unipolar “rules-based” order.
Therefore, current chairmanship in BRICS is among top strategic priorities of Russian long-term foreign policy. It meets the fundamental national interests of our country and fits well with our persistent policy towards a fair multipolar world order and creating equal opportunities for all countries to develop.
BRICS is a unique interstate format where representatives of various countries of various religions, civilizations and cultures communicate and elaborate joint decisions, which are subsequently implemented. All this is done on the basis of equality, mutual respect, openness and search for a balance of interests.
Russia conducts a peaceful foreign policy based on the principles of the UN Charter and International law in opposition to the rules-based order, where the rules are arbitrary invented and imposed on countries without their consent.
Therefore, Russia supports Venezuelan initiative to establish the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter.
Our adherence to international obligations was attested by the International court of Justice, where Ukraine and its Western supporters and proponents of the rules-based order were completely defeated and legal groundlessness of accusations against Russia in FATF and ICAO was proved exhaustedly.
Now the West and its supporters, including Singapore are engaged in another futile endeavor – so-called Peace conference on Ukraine to be held in Switzerland on June 15-16, 2024. They try to agree among themselves and then impose an ultimatum on Russia to achieve “peace” in Ukraine. They call it diplomacy. They call it International law.
The truth is that it was Russia, who tried for 8 years since 2014 to resolve amicably and peacefully the internal crisis in Ukraine routed in coup d’état that brought to power those, who fuel Nazi sentiments in an attempt to eliminate or expel Russian-speaking population. Arbitral killings, air strikes against civil infrastructure, shelling on residential areas, brutal killings of women and children in Donbass – every method, no matter how brutal or immoral was in use by Kiev regime. And for 8 years Russia tried to persuade these people not to do it. We hoped the West will join the effort. Instead, it bet on strengthening regime in Kiev in its russophobic frenzy. The lack of diplomacy on the part of the West paved the way for military confrontation, for pumping Kiev by weapons and mercenaries with the forthcoming conference in Switzerland as a hypocrisy and a mockery of diplomacy.
On the other hand, for many years Russia proposed an inclusive security architecture based on mutual respect of interests. Now it is in the form of Greater Eurasian Partnership, which offers the nations of Eurasia peace, stability and prosperity, free from Cold War divisive lines and zero-sum mentality, that are core to the Indo-Pacific strategies, proposed by the US and its allies.
The choice for Asia Pacific is not between US and China, but between unipolar rules-based order and just and fair multipolar world, based on mutual respect and balance of interests. This is a hard choice, but Russia made it and invite other nations to follow the suit. Judging on the ground of the number of bids to join BRICS, this invitation is well received. There is still a big demand for real diplomacy beyond the borders of the US and EU. And Russia is going to play a constructive role in this regard.
Therefore, on this Day of Russia we celebrate the sovereign, vibrant, rich in its diversities country with an independent view on global affairs through the lenses of building just and sustainable world order and promoting mutually beneficial relations between nations.
