Press Release on the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Extraordinary Meeting, September 3, 2020

10.09.2020

Foreign Minister S. Lavrov at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Extraordinary Meeting

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Mr. Sergey Lavrov attended the G20 foreign ministers’ extraordinary meeting through videoconference on September 3, 2020. The participants focused on measures to be taken by international community to counter the further spread of the coronavirus infection.

According to the Russian Minister S. Lavrov, the coronavirus pandemic, together with other major contemporary challenges, requires a more coordinated global efforts and national response from States and international organizations. There is a need to strike the right balance between maintaining epidemiological security and preventing unnecessary damage to the world economy, international trade and cross-border people-to-people contacts. The G20 is believed to be capable to highly contribute to improving the coherence of national actions and launching mechanisms for prompt interaction in case of emergencies in the field of international health.

The Minister went on by saying that such efforts are particularly relevant, since recently there have been numerous initiatives that often duplicate and substitute the work already done by UN organizations. This could eventually undermine the well-established UN-centered architecture, with WHO at its core, which is a universal platform for organizing and coordinating multilateral efforts to combat the pandemic.

Given the cross-border nature of COVID-19, the global community needs to push aside instant driven disagreements and unite to counter the coronavirus. This is what the appeals of the UN Secretary-General and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which have not been implemented yet, to suspend unilateral restrictions on the supply of medicines and medical equipment and related payments during the pandemic are aimed at. Russia supports them in every possible way.

Minister S. Lavrov recalled that the initiative put forward by President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Leaders' Summit on March 26 to introduce "green corridors" free from trade wars and sanctions in international trade was also focused on addressing this challenge. Today, it is essential to take a visionary approach and find the strength to abandon unfair competition, undue restrictions on trade and access to the funds of international financial institutions.

He said that Russia has attached great importance to humanitarian cooperation. In this regard Russia has already provided assistance in the fight against coronavirus to 35 countries in the form of procurement of medical equipment, supplies, individual protective means and pharmaceuticals, as well as deploying Russian medical staff. The partners of the Russian Federation have been supplied with test kits allowing them to perform 900 thousand COVID-19 diagnostic tests.

Russian researchers have succeeded in creating an effective and safe vaccine against coronavirus in the shortest possible time, which will be soon introduced to the market. Russia’s foreign partners, including those from the G20 countries, show wide interest in the Russian product. In this regard, Minister S. Lavrov confirmed Russia’s openness to mutually beneficial cooperation in this area.

Minister S. Lavrov in his statement shared with the G20 Foreign Ministers Russia's experience which has shown that timely decisions on border crossing restrictions contributed to success in the fight against the epidemic. This required the adoption of a set of affirmative actions to preserve the status of foreign nationals and stateless persons in Russia who were unable to leave the country because of the restrictions imposed. The terms of stay and work in Russia of foreign migrant workers have been extended. Exceptions have been made to facilitate business and sports contacts, enable business operations and humanitarian work, as well as for employees of diplomatic missions. Taking into account the suspension of regular international flights, the issues of departure of foreign citizens from Russia to their homeland are being solved in close cooperation with the States of their citizenship.

EMBASSY OF RUSSIA IN BOTSWANA