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Speaking at a foreign ministers’ conference in New Delhi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shrugged off laughter when he spoke of “the war we are trying to stop” and warned the West that it does not intend to win it back as an energy partner. .
The public attending one of the sessions of the summit of foreign ministers of the G20 in India went from indignation to laughter with the statements of the Russian representative in which he accused the West of starting the war in Ukraine.
“The war that we are trying to stop, the one that was launched against us using Ukraine and its people, of course, influenced Russia’s policy, including energy policy,” he told a jeering audience who did not hesitate to interrupt him.
The head of government diplomacy of Vladimir Putin continued anyway. “The blunt way to describe what’s changed is: we’re not going to be dependent on any partner in the West anymore. We’re not going to let them attack the pipelines again,” he snapped.
Lavrov thus referred to the sabotage that occurred last September of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines that go from Russia to Western Europe and which is being investigated by the United Nations.
On the one hand, Nord Stream 1 carried Russian gas to Germany until Moscow cut off the supply at the end of August 2022. While Nord Stream 2 never entered service, since Germany suspended its certification process shortly before the invasion of Ukraine .
Foreign Minister Lavrov pointed out that instead of his former Western partners, he will now be focused on strengthening relations with India and China.
With Reuters and AP
