Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
September 3, 2026
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to questions during a dedicated lecture and educational programme of the Russian Znanie Society on the sidelines of the 11th Eastern Economic Forum, Vladivostok, September 3, 2026
Dear friends,
I am delighted to attend the Eastern Economic Forum again. I have visited all its 11 editions and believe that with every passing year the forum is not only increasing its attendance but is also increasing the scope of issues for discussions. The issue of young people is especially relevant now.
Eurasia is our common continent, the most rapidly growing, the richest and the most densely populated continent that is distinguished from the other continents by the fact that it is home to several great civilisations, which have maintained their identity throughout thousands of years. One of them is our multinational Russian civilisation, which stands side by side with the Indian, Chinese, Ottoman, Persian and a number of other civilisations.
That is why young people, who are showing a growing interest in interacting with their Eurasian neighbours while remaining open to communication with their peers on other continents, should absorb this history. It is very difficult to preserve one’s national identity without feeling part of what our ancestors did, what they protected and lived for. And while preserving this identity, it is important to remain open to the entire world.
This has been a distinguishing feature of our country, our people and our leaders throughout history, including before the establishment of the Russian Empire, during and after the reign of Peter the Great, during the Soviet period, and in modern Russia.
The Eastern Economic Forum is a successful platform. It attracts guests from widely different countries. The leaders of India, China, Malaysia, Mongolia and Myanmar have attended it. The leaders of Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Laos and Thailand have visited it in various capacities. In the past, when the West maintained normal relations with our country, the forum was visited by the leaders of those countries that now have unfriendly governments, such as Japan and South Korea.
The business segment of the Eastern Economic Forum has long gone far beyond the geographical boundaries of Eurasia. Its frequent guests include businesspeople from South America, Africa and the Middle East.
Of course, we remain open to contacts with everyone who sincerely wants to set aside misguided ideologies and distorted politics, instead focusing on natural interests, primarily in the economic and social spheres. We have never shut our door, but we don’t want to be placed in a situation where we will depend on the “goodwill” of our so-called former Western partners.
We are developing our multilateral cooperation on the Eurasian continent through venues and platforms that are based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and honest dialogue, which are entirely different from those of Western-oriented structures. These platforms include the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (which held a regular summit in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, the other day), the Eurasian Economic Union and ASEAN. They have signed memorandums of cooperation at the level of their general secretaries, emphasising their desire to harmonise their economic and social development, trade and investment programmes in order to avoid overlapping and to more effectively use the potential of these organisations.
We maintain contacts with such organisations as the Asia Cooperation Dialogue. There is also BRICS, which is broader than Eurasia but has the leading states of our continent among its members. The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is becoming involved in the processes which we are doing our best to stimulate within the Eastern Economic Forum.
This cross-platform cooperation between these structures is developing, growing deeper and creating a new agenda. It is objectively beneficial to all those who are engaged in these processes and constitutes the essence of what President Vladimir Putin described as Greater Eurasian Partnership more than ten years ago. He did not present it as an initiative but as principles for shaping this partnership.
This initiative has been enshrined in Russia’s Foreign Policy Concept, which was approved in March 2023. It provides for shaping a partnership based on the coincidence of economic and development interests open to every single country in Eurasia, the largest continent on the planet.
For a long time, the use of the advantages of the world’s largest and richest continent, given by God and geography, has been hindered by the policy which the West pursued and continues to pursue. The West is carrying it out even more fiercely, if not frantically now, seeking to divide our continent. You probably know that they are physically building walls along the border between the European Union and the Russian Federation and digging ditches that are a hundred metres wide (I don’t know how deep) to prevent Russia from “conquering” them.
That is a sick imagination. Moreover, I think that this is not so much a sick imagination as a deliberate policy. They – NATO and the EU – always need an enemy. Without an artificially created image of Russia as the enemy, people would get rid of their governments in the overwhelming majority of EU and NATO countries.
Our position is the exact opposite. We believe that the use and development of wealth given to our continent by God and geography should be open to all nations living here. Even if we approach this issue purely pragmatically, this will at least cut costs.
We are not building walls; we don’t want to isolate ourselves from Europe. But Europe has isolated itself from us. It has decided that our past cooperation was so important for the Russian Federation that we would plead and beg them to forgive, forget, go back, and lift sanctions. We won’t do this. It is against the genetic code of our people. We have, if you like, a pride of our own in the best sense of the word. We don’t need anybody’s goodwill. We have enough friends and partners who are ready to play fair.
Europe is not ready to cooperate in earnest, nor does it know how to do it. For more than five hundred years, Europe has been the main source of many troubles and misfortunes that have afflicted humanity. It was where two world wars began, and it is also the source of the current situation, in which it has simply stifled itself with the sheer volume of sanctions and illegal restrictions it has imposed in an attempt to defend what it considers its right to hegemony in global affairs.
Europe has never lived by its own resources or its own wits. It has always lived at the expense of others, both during the era of colonial rule and the era of slavery. Now, these unprecedented sanctions have been imposed simply because Russia is defending the interests of its people, who, in our view, have been oppressed by the Nazi regime in Ukraine. The sanctions imposed on states that cooperate with or even simply trade with Russia demonstrate that this neo-imperial, colonial – I would even say neo-Nazi – spirit remains deeply entrenched in Europe.
I have already mentioned in several of my speeches that I was simply stunned by the resurgence of Nazism in Germany. But when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that he would once again make Germany the leading military power in Europe, I was genuinely shocked. Because if he does not understand what the word “again” means in this context, then it is indeed very sad and extremely dangerous for Europe, which is once again becoming a breeding ground for ideas of national and racial superiority.
As I have already said, we are choosing a different path. I have listed the organisations with which we cooperate: the SCO, the EAEU, ASEAN, the Asia Cooperation Dialogue, and several others. One of the fundamental formats for interaction in these global spaces has always been the ASEAN Plus partners format. Russia, along with a dozen other states, is a strategic partner of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Every year, ASEAN brings its partners together for a summit. The ASEAN Ten –now eleven, following the admission of Timor-Leste – plus ten partner countries make up the East Asia Summit. This format is open to other states wishing to join, and applications can be submitted at any time. The East Asia Summit is based on what are now commonly referred to as universal principles of inclusiveness. In other words, all participants have equal rights. The mechanism is open to countries that uphold the principles and values promoted at these summits.
The West dislikes structures where it has to be part of a consensus. This is increasingly characteristic of the West, and particularly of Europe: the Anglo-Saxons – primarily the British, but also the Americans, including the current administration – are increasingly driven by the desire to continue dictating their will. These neo-colonialist tendencies are very tenacious.
Now, all Western diplomacy boils down to… Diplomacy is about reaching an agreement. I have already said that it is the oldest profession. Even in what was once considered the oldest profession, an agreement had to be reached first. Therefore, diplomacy is the oldest profession. I ask everyone to keep this in mind. However, the West seeks to dictate rather than reach an agreement. For them, diplomacy has now been supplanted by sanctions. From the perspective of our Western colleagues, sanctions are immediately imposed on anyone who “does something wrong”: primary, secondary, tertiary sanctions, and whatever comes next.
The West dislikes the consensual nature of the processes that have been evolving around ASEAN for many years. The Bali Treaty – the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, which laid the foundation for ASEAN cooperation – was signed in the mid-1970s. Since then, the Association has continued to develop. Yes, it has been a slow process – you know where haste is necessary, but building consensus takes time. It can take months or even years. But a consensus reached through such lengthy efforts is far more reliable and durable than a hastily imposed ultimatum. This, I believe, is clear to everyone.
Now the West seeks to dismantle the inclusive format that has developed around ASEAN, undermine its central role, and undermine the principles upon which the Association builds cooperation with its partners: consensus, mutual respect, and mutual benefit.
To achieve this, various bloc-based “trios” and “quartets” are being created. There is AUKUS: the United States, Britain, and Australia. This group aims to implement a nuclear-powered submarine programme for Australia using American and British technology. However, the activities of this nuclear “trio” do not fully comply with the standards and norms established for all countries within the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) framework. We are carefully examining this matter because failure to comply with, or partial compliance with, IAEA standards carries a risk of the proliferation of military nuclear technology. Unfortunately, the organisation’s current leadership seems to be taking this matter very lightly, clearly under severe pressure from the United States and Britain.
Blocs of four, or so-called “quartets,” are also being created. There is the QUAD format, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue: the United States, Japan, Australia, and India. Our Indian friends are very uncomfortable within this format. They joined it solely because they saw the potential for additional economic opportunities. But as soon as they joined, the Americans and Japanese immediately began doing everything possible to imbue this positive economic “quartet” with a military component. They organise, or attempt to organise, maritime security exercises and are keen to draw our Indian friends, our closest partners, into games directed against another of our great friends, the People’s Republic of China.
To be continued…
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