Russia at UNGA: Foreign minister Lavrov pushes for permanent seat for India in UNSC - Top quotes

NEW DELHI: Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday advocated for a permanent seat for India in the United Nations Security council .

Lavrov, while addressing the UNGA annual summit, said that the current balance of the world is radically different from 80 years ago when UN was established.

Here are the top quotes from his address.

• The global majority is loudly asserting its rights. The Shanghai Corporation Organization and the Brics play a special role as mechanisms for coordinating the interests of the global south and east.
• These new realities are not being adequately reflected in our organizational framework.
• The issue of security council's reform is particularly important. Russia calls for its democratisation exclusively through the expansion of representation from Asia, Africa and Latin America. We support the application of Brazil and India permanent seats on the council.
• Russia is being accused of almost planning to attack the North Atlantic alliance and the European Union countries.
• Russia has never had and does not have any such intentions. However, any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response.
• Russia firmly condemned the attack by Hamas militants on Israeli civilians on October 07, 2023. However, there is no justification for the brutal killings of the civilian population of Palestine or for terrorist attacks. There is also no justification for the collective punishment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian children are dying from bombing and starvation. Hospitals and schools are being destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people are being left without shelter. There is no justification for plans to annex the West Bank.
• The rejection of a Russian bid to extend the deadline finally exposed the West's policy of sabotaging the pursuit of constructive solutions in the UN Security Council, as well as its desire to extract unilateral concessions from Tehran through blackmail and pressure.
• As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly emphasised, Russia has been and remains open to negotiations on eliminating the root causes of the conflict. Russia's security and its vital interest must be reliably agreed. The rights of Russians and Russian-speaking people in the territories that remain under control of the Kyiv regime must be restored in full. On this basis, we are ready to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.