Lavrov Calls on U.S. and Europe to Return to The Yalta System
Winston Churchill (L), Franklin D. Roosevelt (C), and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference in 1945. X/ @Zlatti_71
February 4, 2025 Hour: 10:58 am
The Yalta Conference’s main outcome was the consolidation of the principle of the sovereign equality of all states, he recalled.
On Tuesday, the magazine Russia in Global Politics published an article in which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on the United States and European powers to return to the international system established by the Yalta Conference 80 years ago.
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“In light of the current level of conflict, the thoughtless abandonment of the Yalta-Potsdam system, with the UN and its charter as the core, will inevitably lead to chaos,” he said, and recalled that the main outcome of Yalta was the creation of the United Nations and the principle of the sovereign equality of all states, which Moscow considers the foundation for establishing a new multipolar world order.
“The UN did not bring us to paradise, but it saved us from hell,” he said, noting that the West had the opportunity to regain faith in the UN as the only universal platform for forging collective solutions in 1991 with the Soviet Union’s dissolution.
“But selfish instincts prevailed,” Lavrov stated, alluding to the West’s aggressive policies in Eastern Europe as one of the reasons behind the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Lavrov referred to recent statements by the new U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who criticized the systems governing international relations since 1945 and 1991.
“The ‘America First’ concept bears an alarming resemblance to Hitler’s slogan ‘Germany Above All,’ and the push to establish peace through force could ultimately bury diplomacy,” the Russian diplomat asserted, expressing confidence that the United States would come to its senses sooner or later.
Meanwhile, Russia advocates for UN reform, though without relinquishing its veto power. The Kremlin also supports Brazil and India joining the Security Council but opposes the inclusion of Japan and Germany.
Lavrov defended UN principles such as the right of peoples to self-determination and the respect for states’ territorial integrity, but only in cases where the government represents the entire population residing in that territory.
“There is no need to prove that after the coup d’etat of February 2014 (the Euromaidan revolution), the Kyiv regime does not represent the inhabitants of Crimea, Donbas, and Novorossiya (eastern Ukraine), just as Western metropolises did not represent the peoples of the exploited colonies,” he said.
Lavrov also emphasized that the proposal presented in 2020 by President Vladimir Putin remains valid: to hold a meeting of the heads of state of the permanent members of the Security Council to establish a new global consensus.
The Yalta Conference was attended by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who signed a document on February 11, 1945, after eight days of intense negotiations.
The three leaders committed to founding the United Nations and dividing Germany. Stalin also agreed to declare war on Japan in exchange for control over the Kuril Islands, Sakhalin, and Mongolia. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 rendered the Yalta-agreed division of Europe into two blocs obsolete. Russia and Japan have yet to sign a peace treaty to this day.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE
