Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated that the West will eventually seek to restore relations with Moscow, but warned that the dynamics will fundamentally change, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
“I see no point in avoiding anyone. If someone is avoiding you, boycotting you, walking out when you are speaking, well, let them do that. But they will get over it someday. And when they are through with that and want to communicate with us, things will not be the same,” Lavrov said while speaking at the Terra Scientia National Educational Youth Forum, according to TASS.
He asserted that when the West eventually seeks to resume ties, Russia will be “very particular” about the basis on which those relations are built. “So, when - I am sure that it will be ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ - they come to their senses and invite us to resume relations, we will be very particular about the principles these relations will be built on,” Lavrov emphasised.
As per TASS, the top Russian diplomat underlined Moscow’s deep skepticism over Western assurances, citing past instances of what he termed as betrayal and hypocrisy. “A thought once uttered is a lie,” he said, quoting poet Fyodor Tyutchev. “And when they utter a word, when they promise us something - that too is a lie.”
Lavrov referred to the events of February 2014, when officials from Germany, Poland, and France allegedly failed to uphold guarantees during the political upheaval in Kiev, and to April 2022, when he claimed the West pressured Ukraine to abandon the Istanbul agreements to prolong the conflict and “weaken Russia.”
His remarks come amid heightened military tensions, with Russia’s Defence Ministry reporting on Sunday that nearly 100 Ukrainian drones were intercepted over Russian airspace overnight, one of the largest UAV raids in recent weeks, RT reported. (ANI)
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