Moscow (TDI): Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in a candid interview with American bloggers, described recent shifts in US foreign policy as a “return to normalcy” under an administration focused on national interest.
Speaking in Moscow, Lavrov noted that while US-Russia interests may rarely align, avoiding direct confrontation is crucial.
“When we met in Riyadh with Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz and Steve Witkoff, they said that the US wanted normal relations in the sense that the foundation of the American foreign policy under the President Donald Trump administration is the national interest of the United States. But at the same time, we understand that other nations also have their national interest.”
He said that it is very well understood that nations like the US and Russia would never have their national interest the same. They would not coincide maybe even 50 or less percent, but when they do coincide this situation must be used to develop this simultaneous and similar interest.
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But when the interests do not coincide and contradict each other, then the responsible nations must do everything not to allow this contradiction to degenerate into confrontation, particularly military confrontation which would be disastrous for many other countries, he added.
Lavrov said that the beginning of the special military operation was a decision because all other attempts to bring things into some positive dimension failed for 10 years after the illegal coup in Ukraine, in violation of the agreement inked the night before and guaranteed by the Germans, French and Poles.
“I don’t think the US would drop from NATO. At least President Trump never hinted that this might be the case. But what he did bluntly say was that if you want us to protect you, to give you security guarantees, you pay what is necessary,” he said.
However, Lavrov said, President Trump doesn’t want to provide these security guarantees to Kyiv under Zelenskyy. He has his own view of the situation which he bluntly presents every now and then, that this war should never have erupted, pulling Kyiv into NATO in violation of its Constitution, in violation of the Declaration of Independence of 1991, on the basis of which we recognized Ukraine as a sovereign state.
The Russian Foreign Minister further said that another thing which this Declaration also confirmed and solidified is that all rights of Russian and all other national minorities are to be respected.
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The way Europe and the United Kingdom received Zelenskyy in London after the scandal in Washington, it’s an indication that they want to raise the stakes and they are preparing something to pressure the US administration back into some aggressive action against Russia, Lavrov said.
“It’s not about the territories, it’s about the people who were deprived of their history by law. Territories are important only because people live on these territories,” he said, adding “The people who live on the territories are descendants of those who for hundreds of years were building Odessa & other cities on those very lands who were building ports, roads, who were founding those lands and who associated with the history of this land.”
The Americans know that we would not betray our commitments, legal commitments, the political commitments which we develop with China, Lavrov said.
