Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave an interview to the Indonesian 'Kompas' newspaper following the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in China, where Russian President Putin met with Indonesian counterpart Subianto.

Question: What practical and distinct steps are being taken or will be taken to promote bilateral relations following President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with President of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto? In which areas, and why were these particular areas chosen?

Sergey Lavrov: In our practical work, we are guided by the Declaration on the Strategic Partnership between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Indonesia, which was adopted following our respective leaders’ meeting in St Petersburg in June. In particular, this document enshrines the mutual push to expand mutually beneficial cooperation in areas such as energy, mining and mineral processing, infrastructure construction and modernisation, agriculture, banking, communications and telecommunications, and tourism. We believe our respective governments should facilitate direct contacts between our business circles and create favourable conditions for doing so. The coordinating role in this process is assigned to the Russian-Indonesian Joint Commission on Trade, Economic, and Technical Cooperation.

Our countries are jointly implementing a number of major initiatives, including a project operated by the Russian company Rosneft and its Indonesian partner Pertamina to build a refinery and a petrochemical complex outside the town of Tuban, East Java Province. Negotiations are underway for the Russian economic operators to participate in the hydrocarbon production off the Indonesian shelf, as well as in the oil and LNG supplies. Other promising ideas are on the table as well.

A free trade agreement between Indonesia and the EAEU, of which Russia is a member, will open new horizons for cooperation. We are moving towards this goal at a fairly fast clip. A joint statement on the completion of the negotiations was adopted on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. We expect the agreement to be signed before the end of this year.

Question:How can Russia and its partners, including Indonesia, overcome trade restrictions imposed by a group of countries without violating international law?

Sergey Lavrov:The fact that the majority of the collective West and, above all, many EU member states, removed many items from trade with Russia in order to put us under pressure is an unfortunate decision, because every single economy is affected. Even worse, the initiators of the sanctions have lost credibility. In the future, they will not be able to count on the same favourable trade arrangements with Russia as they used to. We have certainly drawn our conclusions, even though we were and remain open to interaction with all our external partners based on respect for interests and mutual benefit.

On the other hand, the world is becoming increasingly aware of the fact that absolutely any country can be targeted by aggressive sanctions. So, it absolutely makes sense that many countries from the Global South and the Global East want to secure their foreign trade interests and are consistently reducing their dependence on the historical ties with the West. This finds expression in a gradual transition to settlements in national currencies, diversification of cross-border payment tools, creation of new international transport corridors, and the establishment of production and supply chains that are impervious to external pressure, etc. All of the above creates a completely different environment in international trade and is an effective answer to some countries acting contrary to the principle of international cooperation enshrined in the UN Charter, and their attempts to obstruct the realisation of every country’s right to development and to hinder the formation of a more just world order.

Question: Why should Indonesia consider cooperating with Russia to advance its peaceful nuclear energy?

Sergey Lavrov: First, Russia has a long track record of building nuclear power plants in other countries. Our nuclear industry recently turned 80.

We offer our foreign partners the latest reliable solutions that have proven their worth in real life. The State Corporation Rosatom possesses the full technological range of nuclear power units, including floating low-power nuclear power plants. These mobile plants are perfectly suited for supplying power to remote islands of the Indonesian archipelago where the building of conventional energy facilities makes no economic sense.

Second, Russian nuclear projects are adapted to a variety of climates, including tropics, and meet safety requirements for seismically active areas, which is particularly relevant in the case of Indonesia.

Third, cooperation with Russia provides its partners with access to advanced technology. We provide opportunities for training highly skilled specialists in peaceful nuclear energy at Russian universities.

In addition, Russia is prepared to offer joint projects involving non-energy use of nuclear technology in medicine and agriculture, among others.

Question: President Trump has issued a threat to impose additional high tariffs on the countries that trade with Russia. How do you respond to that, and what will Moscow undertake to encourage countries to continue trading with Russia?

Sergey Lavrov: Everyone knows that President Trump has done more than threatening to impose high import tariffs on products from a number of countries that are Russia’s trading partners. Such tariffs have been effectively imposed, for example, on India which is our privileged strategic partner and a major consumer of Russian goods, particularly hydrocarbons. We appreciate the fact that New Delhi had not bowed down to pressure and maintains its commitment to free trade principles. The Americans have gone back on every principle they’ve been extolling for many years, if not decades.

For our part, we operate on the premise that bilateral relations with any country have a value of their own. We never make friends with anyone to oppose a third party. We do not build trade with our partners, including a major economy like Indonesia, in order to harm their relations with other countries, including the United States.

We will continue to develop equal and mutually beneficial practical cooperation with everyone who is ready to work with us based on similar principles, which includes the overwhelming majority of the countries from the Global South and the Global East, which have a stake in expanding trade and economic ties with Russia for the benefit of their people. Our strategic partners and like-minded BRICS partners, including, I’m sure, our Indonesian friends are among them.

Question: What are Russia’s concrete steps to end the war in Gaza and to achieve a just peace in Palestine?

Sergey Lavrov: Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fallen victims to the war in Gaza, which has been going on for almost two years now; the number of civilian casualties exceeded 100,000 a long time ago. This is multiples of the number of civilians killed in Ukraine over the same period. Israel’s policy of restricting humanitarian deliveries, which has led to mass starvation in the Palestinian enclave, is a particular cause for concern and outrage. No less alarming is Israel’s policy of cleansing the West Bank of the Palestinians.

At this junction, it is extremely important to prevent Gaza from being completely destroyed and to stop the killing of civilians. An immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, the unconditional release of hostages and detained persons, and ensuring safe humanitarian access to all those in need are essential as well.

The ongoing tragic events are caused primarily by failure to implement the international community’s decisions on creating an independent Palestinian state that would exist alongside Israel in peace and security. We still believe that fulfilling the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and their right to determine their own future must be a prerequisite for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. Without this, it is very difficult to imagine how Israel’s own lasting security can be ensured, something that Russia and, I believe, other responsible countries are sincerely interested in.

Guided by this understanding, Russia was heavily involved in the International High-Level Conference on the Middle East, which took place in New York on July 28-30. Work in this format will continue during the high-level week of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly in the second half of September. We will team up with like-minded countries to de-escalate the situation with the aim of creating proper conditions for bringing a negotiated solution to the Palestinian issue. In this regard, we are set to keep up close interaction with our Indonesian partners.

Question: What specific steps has Russia taken in order to achieve a speedy resolution of the Ukraine issue?

Sergey Lavrov: Settling the Ukraine crisis peacefully remains our top priority. As a reminder, after the start of the special military operation to save people in Donbass, Kiev requested negotiations, and we agreed right away. They took place in February-April 2022, first in Belarus and then Türkiye. Agreements on a peaceful end to the conflict were initialed, but then the Kiev regime, following the advice of its Western handlers, walked away from a peace treaty choosing instead to continue the war.

This spring, President Vladimir Putin initiated the resumption of direct Russia-Ukraine talks. Three rounds took place in Istanbul, and certain progress was made on humanitarian issues, such as exchanging prisoners of war and detained persons, returning dead bodies, etc. Furthermore, each side presented its perspective on the prerequisites for ending the conflict. The heads of the delegations remain in direct contact. We expect the negotiations to continue.

More recently, the Trump administration has been making strong diplomatic efforts with regard to the Ukraine context. On August 15, the Presidents of Russia and the President of United States held a very useful conversation on Ukraine and other issues in Alaska, and had several substantive telephone conversations.

We welcome all constructive initiatives, including the initiatives coming from our partners in the Global South and the Global East. This includes the ideas put forward by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in the summer of 2023, the proposals of African countries, and the activities of the Group of Friends for Peace in Ukraine formed in New York at the initiative of China and Brazil. Of course, we would like to see our friends make statements in support of the Russia-US dialogue on Ukraine.

On a fundamental level, clearly, durable peace is impossible without eradicating the underlying causes of the conflict which include threats to Russia’s security that arose in the wake of NATO’s expansion and attempts to drag Ukraine into this aggressive military bloc. These threats must be eliminated, and a new system of security guarantees for Russia and Ukraine must be formed as an integral part of a pan-continental architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia.

It is no less important to ensure the restoration and observance of human rights in the territories remaining under the control of the Kiev regime, which, as I noted earlier, is exterminating everything connected with Russia, Russians, and Russian-speaking people, including the Russian language, culture, traditions, canonical Orthodoxy, and Russian-language media. Today, Ukraine is the only country where the use of the language spoken by a significant portion of the population has been outlawed.

For peace to be durable, the new territorial realities that emerged after the accession of Crimea, Sevastopol, the DPR, the LPR, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions to the Russian Federation following the referenda must be recognised and formalised in an international legal manner. Finally, Ukraine’s neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-free status must be ensured. These conditions were spelled out in Ukraine’s 1990 Declaration of Independence, and Russia and the international community used them to recognise the Ukrainian statehood.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20250902/russian-foreign-minister-lavrovs-interview-with-indonesian-newspaper-kompas-1122712036.html

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         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

Europe Must Get Real on Russia–Ukraine
Here are five steps its leaders can take to help end the war.

Andrew Day

MAGA’s had it with Europe.

That’s nothing new, of course. America First conservatives have long regarded the European Union as a woke, socialist superstate and lamented member-state crackdowns on right-wing parties, traditional values, and national identity.

But the acceleration of U.S. diplomacy on Russia–Ukraine last month led to greater irritation with the old continent. Many American conservatives and foreign-policy realists believe European leaders are slow-walking if not obstructing the peace process. 

The Trump administration agrees, judging by an Axios report published this weekend entitled, “Scoop: White House believes Europe secretly undoing Ukraine war’s end.” For MAGA conservatives, the story was yet more evidence that European intransigence was prolonging a brutal and unnecessary war.

As the resident Europhile here at The American Conservative, it pains me to admit: These MAGA critics of Europe are right. 

Though not in every detail. The Axios report struck me (and the pro-Ukraine journalist Christopher Miller) as a blame-shifting exercise by the Trump administration. The PR campaign generated a strong headline, but one criticism leveled against (unnamed) European leaders was that they weren’t hawkish enough on Russia—the opposite of what MAGA believes. Moreover, the quoted White House officials conceded that Britain and France—in this context, the most important countries—are working constructively with the U.S.

Still, the Europeans really do seem to be throwing obstacles onto the road to peace. Consider, for example, the tragicomedy of Europe’s push to provide Ukraine with postwar “security guarantees.”

Since at least February, Britain and France have floated a deployment of European soldiers to Ukraine. But, they added, this “reassurance force” would itself need an American “backstop” in the form of air support. The Kremlin opposes the stationing of NATO troops in Ukraine, and the White House has resisted U.S. military involvement, so the “peace proposal” looked to many analysts more like a poison pill. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump relented, offering last month to support European peacekeepers “by air” and claiming Moscow was open to Western-provided guarantees.

And yet, as European officials prepare to meet this week in Paris to discuss the Ukraine war, all signs suggest growing division over whether their nations should, or even can, deploy enough troops to deter Russia. As word spread in August that Washington would help with security guarantees, London scaled back its plans to send troops, and Berlin said it likely couldn’t send any, since the deployment of a single brigade in Lithuania had strained the German military. 

This is embarrassing stuff. Fortunately, there’s a better way forward. Here are five steps European capitals can take to help Washington bring this war closer to a resolution. 

First, and most importantly, the Europeans must take a more realistic view of the conflict and of its belligerents’ relative military capabilities. The grim reality is that Russia is winning the war. The sooner it ends, the better for Ukraine. 

The Axios report had said the Europeans were pushing Kiev to hold out for a “better deal” than what Trump has helped get on the table, rather than make territorial concessions to Moscow. The sources for that claim were U.S. officials disgruntled with Europe, but it aligns with the public rhetoric of European leaders. 

It’s dreadful advice. If Kiev wants to retain a sovereign, albeit truncated, state after the war, then it should embrace the imperfect deal that Trump is trying to secure. The likely alternative is more fighting, more Ukrainian losses, and a much worse deal, if not total capitulation.

The next couple steps pertain to security guarantees that would be more credible than promises of European troops: 2) inviting Ukraine to join the European Union as part of a peace settlement, and 3) lobbying for Ukraine to maintain and indeed grow its own military deterrent to the greatest extent that Moscow will tolerate.

The EU’s founding charter includes a mutual defense clause, which obligates all member nations, when one of them is attacked, to “aid and assist it by all the means in their power.” Unlike NATO’s Article 5, this clause has not been (mis)understood to require that members directly fight the aggressor, but merely support the attacked nation. Over the last three years, the Europeans have amply demonstrated their willingness to send military aid to Ukraine in the event of a Russian invasion, so such a commitment would be credible.

Whether Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would permit Ukraine to participate in the EU’s mutual defense regime isn’t clear, though he has warmed to the idea of Kiev’s joining the Union. Nor is it clear that the EU would agree to admit Ukraine, with several members wary and Hungary vocally opposed. Trump is rightly prodding Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban to reconsider that stance.

European leaders should also use their diplomatic leverage to curb the “demilitarization” of Ukraine, a Russian war aim that comes with enough wiggle room for productive negotiation. And they should commit to bankrolling Ukrainian rearmament after the war.

Moscow will almost certainly demand caps on Ukraine’s military, such as range restrictions on missiles and artillery, and compromises will need to be made. But the Europeans will achieve more diplomatically if they focus on this issue, rather than harebrained schemes of a “reassurance force.”

Step number four: European leaders should deploy some diplomatic carrots to complement the sticks. Throughout the war, they have tended to propose ever-harsher measures on Moscow to force Putin to the negotiating table, and invariably that means yet another package of sanctions (they’re currently prepping number 19).

At this point, the carrot of sanctions relief would be more effective. Ukraine’s supporters are hoping that the Russian economy, which shows signs of strain, will enter a recession, but a sharp downturn wouldn’t automatically lead to peace. The Europeans should offer Moscow a chance at economic reintegration, providing an attractive off-ramp for its spluttering war economy.

Lastly, European leaders need to lay the groundwork for some kind of modus vivendiwith Russia for after the war ends. The Ukraine war is, at root, a conflict between Russia and the West, and any stable settlement will need to put relations between them on a more stable footing.

Western journalists and analysts who talk to Russian security elites can attest to the extreme antipathy they presently feel toward Europe and the deleterious effects of that antipathy on peace talks. “In our view, the Europeans play a significantly negative role, often acting irrationally and against their own economic interests,” a senior researcher at a strategic policy institute in Russia told me last week. “I do not exclude the possibility that at the first convenient opportunity, they will try to revise all the achievements that have already been made on the negotiation track.”

Recent statements by European leaders that Putin is an “ogre at our gates,” that the Russians are “Huns,” and that the Ukraine war is a symptom of an underlying Russian “cancer” do not help matters. Indeed, such pronouncements are grotesque and plainly counterproductive. Russians are a proud European people whose cultural contributions have enriched us all. The Western world must learn to accommodate the Eastern half of what I have called the “Global North.”

As the era of American hegemony recedes and China’s rise continues, the West will want to repair ties with Russia and peel it away from Beijing. Trump has wisely pursued that aim as a component of ending the Ukraine war. It’s time for Europe to join the effort.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/europe-must-get-real-on-russia-ukraine/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.