MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have noted the lack of alternatives in the peaceful settlement of crises in Syria and regarding North Korea during a meeting in New York, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Friday.
“Regarding the discussion of the thorniest issues on the international agenda, including the situation in Syria and on the Korean Peninsula, the parties stressed the lack of alternatives in the search for political and diplomatic ways to settle the modern crisis situations,” the Russian Foreign Ministry noted.
When discussing the reform initiatives forwarded by Guterres, Sergey Lavrov noted “the need to coordinate them in an intergovernmental format and observe the principle of division of powers of the world organization’s main bodies enshrined in the UN Charter.”
Lavrov and Guterres have confirmed their adherence to the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program.
“Both sides have confirmed adherence to the task of the unfailing implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to settle the situation on the Iranian nuclear program,” the ministry noted.
Russian Law minister’s response
The calculation that North Korea’s missile nuclear programs can be stopped only by pressure is wrong and thus futile, Chairman of the Federation Council Committee for Foreign Affairs Konstantin Kosachev said at Friday’s plenary meeting on political and security issues held in Hanoi at the 26th session of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF).
During the time that passed after the previous APPF session the situation in the sphere of security in the Pacific Rim has remained complicated and volatile, the senator said, chiefly due to the escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula. “This problem has grown worse recently and is teetering on the brink of a large-scale conflict,” Kosachev noted.
He specified that Russia, like other global communities members, “does not accept North Korea’s missile and nuclear schemes and rude violation of the UN Security Council resolutions.” In addition to that, the MP pointed to the inadmissibility of heightening tensions and military confrontation by the US and its allies. “The implementation of the US plans to deploy elements of the global ballistic missile defence in this region is deeply concerning. These measures can have an extremely negative impact on the security in the Pacific Rim,” the senator affirmed.
Regarding Russian-Syrian collaborated counter-terrorist operations, he said, “Certain success was reached in this area recently. It mainly concerns addressing tasks in the fight against armed terrorist groups in Syria. It made it possible to withdraw the Russian troops to their home bases,” the MP noted.
He stressed that the war on terror may be successful only in wide international cooperation. “It should be aimed at eliminating factors conducive to the spreading of terrorism, extremism and radicalism, including countering their ideology,” Kosachev believes. It is important to involve civil society representatives, religious leaders, prominent media outlets and business and expert circles in this work, he said.
Kosachev also noted that the settlement on the Korean Peninsula is possible only through political and diplomatic means. “The Russian-Chinese roadmap on the settlement on the Korean Peninsula is a good framework for it. This document aims at a gradual easing of tensions and establishment of a mechanism for a stable peace and security,” he stressed.
