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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asserted that Western strategies in the Asia-Pacific region are designed to fuel tensions between the two Asian nations.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (Image Credit: Reuters)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov alleged that the West is attempting to create a rift between India and China to foster antagonism between the neighbouring countries. Speaking at a meeting of the “Culture without Borders: the Role and Development of Cultural Diplomacy” diplomatic club, Sergei Lavrov asserted that Western strategies in the Asia-Pacific region are designed to fuel tensions between the two Asian nations.
“Take note of the current developments in the Asia-Pacific region, which the West has started calling the Indo-Pacific region to give its policy a clear anti-China orientation — expecting thereby to additionally clash our great friends and neighbours India and China,” Sergei Lavrov said.
Accusing the West of trying to undermine the role of ASEAN in Asia, Sergei Lavrov said, “Western colleagues, as in any other part of the world, want to play a major role here, they want to undermine the central role of ASEAN, which suited everyone for many, many decades.”
He further criticized the West’s attempts to “lure some ASEAN members into openly confrontational rather than unifying formats,” and called for a collective security arrangement in Eurasia.
He said, “There are no other continents like Eurasia, where so many civilisations coexisted…and at the same time, Eurasia is the only continent where there is no continent-wide structure,” he said.
This comes as China characterized India’s military action as “regrettable” following Operation Sindoor in which a series of retaliatory precision air strikes were carried out by the Indian Armed Forces against alleged terrorist infrastructure inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Beijing urged both India and Pakistan to “avoid worsening the situation” and to “remain calm and exercise restraint” in the interest of regional peace and stability without explicitly condemn Pakistan for the terror attack in Pahalgam that triggered the operation.
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