MINSK, July 1. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to convene a summit of the permanent members of the UN Security Council is still on the table, and Moscow hopes this initiative will materialize as soon as the West "regains its senses," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.
"Back before the pandemic, [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin proposed holding a summit of the permanent members of the UN Security Council so that an honest discussion be held on how to run things globally for the world to be equal and just, with UN Charter provisions put to life," Russia’s top diplomat said at meeting with Belarusian State University students and teaching staff.
"The invitation - the proposal - is still on the table," Lavrov added. "I hope we will be able to return to it as soon as the West regains its senses," he remarked.
Commenting on a potential expansion of the UN Security Council, the Russian foreign minister said that such an expansion was needed and that the process had been "underway for several decades now."
"Someone has proposed adding permanent members, while others have insisted that non-permanent ones be added, but the fact is that emerging markets are catastrophically underrepresented," Lavrov emphasized. He described as disproportionate the presence of six Western nations in the 15-member UN Security Council.
"We have spoken in favor of India and Brazil [as members], and in this light we support the representation of Africa," he said.
Lavrov slammed the West’s behind-the-scene political maneuvers on international arena which he said seriously undermined a key principle of the UN Charter. Western ambassadors and emissaries "have been literally running across the globe demanding that any countries, be it small or large, join their anti-Russian sanctions," he said.
"If they [Western countries] make ultimatums to the likes of India, Egypt and Turkey, then this brazen attitude goes beyond reason here, I am afraid," the Russian foreign minister concluded.
