Russia, ASEAN discuss reform of global financial system, FM says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia and ASEAN countries had discussed the need to create a more balanced international financial and trade system during meetings in the Philippines.

Lavrov said the discussions focused on reforming the global monetary, financial and trade systems to protect countries from what he described as unilateral sanctions, tariffs and other forms of pressure, Caliber.Az reports per Russian media. 

“We discussed the need to reform the international monetary, financial, and trade systems in order to protect countries from unilateral, illegitimate sanctions, tariffs, and other abuses of power by the West within the global financial and trade system,” the minister said.

He also said Russia and ASEAN planned to double their current trade volume by 2036.

Additionally, he stated that the UN played “a rather unsavoury role” in the Black Sea initiative, which was implemented unilaterally and in Ukraine’s interests.

“The experience of this initiative by Secretary-General [António] Guterres shows that it was one-sided. And the principles agreed upon for its implementation were carried out exclusively in the interests of the Ukrainian side. And UN officials played a not very commendable role here. So this [the resumption of the initiative—ed.] was not discussed at all,” the minister noted.

He said Russia had not received any proposals to resume the initiative, which facilitated the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

The Russian foreign minister also said Moscow believed that most ASEAN countries were sympathetic to Russia’s position on efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.

By Sabina Mammadli