Division into Two Blocs Deepens at United Nations General Assembly

Sept. 20, 2023, (EIRNS)—Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov  told TASS that there were no plans for Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to meet with U.S. officials while at the UN General Assembly. “The schedule of [Russian Foreign] Minister [Sergey Lavrov] is extremely intensive,” Ryabkov stated. “Bilateral interaction with the U.S. side is not planned and, considering the policy adopted by Washington, we do not see any added value in it. Especially because we have not received any requests on the matter.”

TASS added: “According to Ryabkov, the Biden administration is more preoccupied with promoting Ukrainian politics and head of the Kiev regime Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the UN rostrum keeping in mind the upcoming U.S. presidential election next year.”

In its coverage of the UNGA, the London Financial Times celebrated that “a cold war-style stalemate over Ukraine and Sino-American tensions have left the Security Council at a low ebb,” noting that the gathering reflects the fact that there is a “divided world.”

These deep rifts and tensions were also discussed in a Sept. 19 article in Kommersant which reported on comments by Alexander Lomanov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations.

“As pressure from the U.S. and its allies continues to mount, Moscow and Beijing are boosting joint efforts to neutralize as many threats to their security as possible and reduce the growing cost of their relations with the West.... The West’s behavior is becoming more and more confrontational and tough, making a strategic rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing more and more relevant,”

he noted. In the expert’s view, “before our very eyes, Russia and China are in fact creating an informal ‘Group of 2,’ which will have its own say, along with the G7 and the G20.”