PRESS RELEASE
Lavrov: Signs at Munich that the Cold War Is Still On
Feb. 18, 2017 (EIRNS)—For Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, remarks like those of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and others at the Munich Security Conference are indications that, for some people, the Cold War is still on.
"Military cooperation should be resumed, (however) NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg surrounded by his deputies yesterday could not say NATO is ready for it,"
Lavrov said. "This is regretful."
Lavrov went on to argue that the unipolar world system cannot last much longer—and contains the seeds of its own demise—and therefore world leaders should make decisions towards a more fair world.
"We do not agree categorically with those, who accuse Russia and new centers of global influence of attempts to undermine the so-called liberal world order,"
he said.
"Crisis of this model of the world was programmed even when the concept of economic and political globalization was invented mostly as an instrument to provide growth of the elite club of countries and its dominating all the others."
Citing a message from one of the most influential 19th-century Russian diplomats to U.S. Ambassador Cassius Clay in 1861, which said that any conflicting interests could be harmonized through "justice and modesty," Lavrov said that the same approach could strengthen the modern world.
"If everyone adopts that approach, we could overcome the period of post-truth fast and resist information wars imposed on the international community,"
he said. Of course, 1861 was the beginning of the U.S. Civil War, in which the Russian fleet played a crucial role in defending the United States from the British Armada.
Lavrov lamented the fact that NATO has still not decided on proposals that Russia brought to the NATO-Russia Council, last summer, to improve military transparency over the Baltic Sea.
"We expected those detailed suggestions would receive a feedback immediately—experts would sit and agree on maps to raise the security,"
he said. "This did not happen, and till now we cannot begin this work." Lavrov reported that Stoltenberg told him that hopefully, the relevant experts will meet in March.
