🇺🇳 On the eve of the 80th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter, we took note of the tendentious rhetoric by Western outlets about the allegedly exhausted role of the United Nations, spread in some South African media.
❗️ Such statements are not only groundless but also dangerous: they stimulate distrust of multilateral formats of interaction and thereby undermine the principles of collective responsibility for peace and security. In fact, we are talking about an attempt to return to the era when the law of the strong prevailed over international law, and global decisions were made in closed clubs, without the participation of the majority of the world’s states.
It should be remembered that exactly 80 years ago, the global organization became a logical and, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rightfully noted, “hard-won” result of World War II — a symbol of humanity’s determination to abandon force as an instrument of global politics and choose the path of dialogue and compromise.
☝️ The UN remains a unique international forum in its representativity, legitimacy, and universality. Its mechanisms have been the bedrock of interstate relations and international law for almost eight decades.
As President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin put it, “the World Organization is meant to continue playing a central role in maintaining peace and security, promoting sustainable and progressive growth.”
At the same time, against the background of the transformations taking place across the globe, the Russian side stands for the adaptation of the Organization to modern realities. Russia clearly and consistently advocates expanding the representation of the Global Majority nations — from Asia, Africa, and Latin America — in the Security Council and other key bodies. The head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, in particular, repeatedly emphasized the fairness of the desire of African states to obtain permanent membership in the Security Council.
Criticism of the UN in Western media is not surprising — amid the emergence of the multipolar world, it is increasingly difficult for the “collective West” to impose unilateral approaches on the international community with minimal regard to the positions and interests of the countries of the Global South. They are not ready and do not want to abandon the established practices of monopolizing global decision-making, imposing a neoliberal agenda, and undermining the sovereignty of disliked countries.
However, when such libellous statements of the Western media are repeated without any skepticism on the African continent — it is surprising. After all, it was the principles of the UN Charter which underlay the decolonization of the African continent, while the UN institutions made it possible to bring this process to completion and qualitatively improve the situation of the African peoples. We are confident that the World Organization has no alternatives and will continue to serve the interests of the countries of the Global South.
🇷🇺 Russia will continue to make decisive efforts to defend the UN as a platform that allows the Global Majority to equally participate in building a just world order based on the generally recognized principles of the Charter of the World Organization
Embassy of Russia (South Africa)