Washington’s policy of “permissiveness” won’t bring it the desired result, Russia’s foreign minister warns
FILE PHOTO: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) gestures during his meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. © Jonathan NACKSTRAND / POOL / AFP
Washington’s attempts to spread its influence to more and more areas around the globe are doomed to fail, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
“Our American colleagues demonstrate permissiveness” for themselves in international affairs “every time they try to assert their dominance” in new places, Lavrov said during a meeting with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh.
“The Americans have taken up a course of suppressing any independence,” Russia’s top diplomat insisted.
But those who follow their actions “understand the futility of a policy according to which you can just turn a blind eye to one situation, one crisis created by the US, and expect that everything will be more or less OK there,” he said.
Lavrov mentioned the conflict in Ukraine and the current crisis over Taiwan as examples of reckless policies pursued by the US.
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“They decided to turn Ukraine into a menace for Russia and for many years ignored the racist policies of the Kiev regime, which has been destroying everything Russian… they violated the principles of indivisible security, which they signed up for at the highest level and which they simply trampled upon,” he explained.
Moscow has pointed to the persecution of Russian speakers in Donbass by the Kiev authorities and the US push to make Ukraine a member of NATO as being among the main reasons for launching its military operation in the neighboring country in late February.
“Similarly, in the case of [US House speaker] Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, they [the Americans] ignored their own principles, which they proclaimed publicly,” the Russian foreign minister pointed out.
Pelosi, who is third in line to the US presidency, stopped in Taiwan on Tuesday and Wednesday, despite vigorous protest from China, which considers the self-governing island a part of its territory.
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The move prompted Beijing to launch the largest ever drills around Taiwan and slap trade restrictions on the island of 23.5 million. On Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry announced that the House speaker and her family would also be sanctioned.
After talks with Lavrov, Wang slammed Pelosi’s trip as “vulgar comedy,” which would result in “serious consequences” for Washington.
The actions of the US House speaker were “a serious violation of the One China policy” and an infringement on the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Chinese foreign minister said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is also attending the East Asia Summit, claimed that Pelosi’s visit was peaceful and didn’t mean that Washington was abandoning its adherence to the One China policy.
“There is no possible justification” for such a harsh response to the development by Beijing, Blinken said, urging the Chinese authorities to “cease these actions.”
