Russia’s New Foreign Policy to Focus on Ending Western ‘Monopoly’

This handout photograph taken and released on February 10, 2023 by the Russian Foreign Ministry shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov delivering a speech during the celebration of the Diplomats' Day in Moscow. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released on February 10, 2023 by the Russian Foreign Ministry shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov delivering a speech during the celebration of the Diplomats' Day in Moscow. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
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Russia’s New Foreign Policy to Focus on Ending Western ‘Monopoly’

This handout photograph taken and released on February 10, 2023 by the Russian Foreign Ministry shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov delivering a speech during the celebration of the Diplomats' Day in Moscow. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released on February 10, 2023 by the Russian Foreign Ministry shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov delivering a speech during the celebration of the Diplomats' Day in Moscow. (Handout / Russian Foreign Ministry / AFP)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow would focus on ending what he called a Western "monopoly" over global affairs as part of a new foreign policy, accusing the West of suppressing rival centers of power.

Russian state media reported last week that President Vladimir Putin was set to approve a new foreign policy, as relations with the West sink to historic lows over the war in Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions.

"The Anglo-Saxons - and the rest of the collective West, unquestioningly submitting to them - seek to impose their dictates on world affairs at any cost," Lavrov told lawmakers in Russia's State Duma.

"Our renewed foreign policy concept will focus on the need to end the West's monopoly on shaping the framework of international life, which in the future must be determined not in its egoistic interests but on a fair, universal balance of interests."

The Kremlin has often accused Western countries, led by the "Anglo-Saxon" United States and Britain, of trying to dominate global politics and meddle in others' affairs, while seeking to suppress rising powers in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Western countries say Russia has made itself a global pariah by invading a peaceful neighbor and that Russian-backed groups have interfered in Western elections - something that Yevgeny Prigozhin, a high-profile ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, now freely acknowledges.



UK Warns of Iranian Attempts to Bring Ships into its Waters

Illustrative: The oil tanker Mercer Street, which came under attack last week off Oman, is seen moored off Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021 (AP)
Illustrative: The oil tanker Mercer Street, which came under attack last week off Oman, is seen moored off Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021 (AP)
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UK Warns of Iranian Attempts to Bring Ships into its Waters

Illustrative: The oil tanker Mercer Street, which came under attack last week off Oman, is seen moored off Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021 (AP)
Illustrative: The oil tanker Mercer Street, which came under attack last week off Oman, is seen moored off Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021 (AP)

A warning has gone out to seafarers in the Arabian Gulf over what appear to be attempts by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to compel ships to enter Iranian waters.

A notice from the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center on Friday said that there had been “several incidents involving VHF radio challenges to vessels.”

“It is assessed that these are most likely part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ large-scale exercise, Great Prophet XVIII,” the UKMTO said.

Iran has been engaged in an extraordinary two-month-long military exercise across the country after being twice hit by Israel in retaliation for attacks against it during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

While Iran has a history of harassing and impounding vessels, it hasn’t directly launched many such attacks recently. Instead, the Iran-backed Houthi group have been attacking ships since November 2023, a campaign that now appears to be winding down after the ceasefire in Gaza.

Iranian media reported a likely Guard exercise in the Arabian Gulf coming this weekend as well.