Praises Indonesia's Chairmanship, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Says West Is Trying To Weaken Constructive Work At East Asia Summit

JAKARTA - Western countries are trying to weaken constructive efforts at the East Asian Summit (EAS) by using all the reasons to put forward Ukraine's problems, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, referring to a meeting held on the sidelines of ASEAN's 43rd summit on Thursday.

"West Kolectives with the participation of some of their partners from Asia at this summit are trying all possible ways to undermine these constructive efforts, by using various excuses to lift Ukraine's problems from a certain point of view," he said.

Lavrov said the summit was "successful thanks to the extraordinary work carried out by the chairmanship of Indonesia." Minister Lavrov also said Russia supports "chairman efforts to ensure the focus of all participants on the issues on the forum agenda."

"This is mainly an acceleration of the sustainable development of countries in the region, solving problems in the field of food and energy security, increasing emergency preparedness, implementing the digital economy and many more," explained Foreign Minister Lavrov.

"As a result, the declaration passed at the summit aims to ensure that all ASEAN countries and eight of their partners, which are the composition of the East Asian Summit, are able to overcome these problems," he said.

The Minister also stated that efforts to weaken the work of the summit had been stopped and reiterated that "East Asian summit will continue to carry out the previously agreed agenda, which does not include geopolitical-scale issues and is indeed the case, not dealing with crisis resolution and any conflict situation," Lavrov said.

"In the end, what applies is the spirit of ASEAN which remains loyal to its principles in seeking balance of interests and consensus," he said.

"Regarding any attempt to carry out Ukraineization, made by our Western counterparts, this effort is increasingly tiring for countries that want to engage in real affairs rather than supporting propaganda that supports the Kiev regime, which is exploited by Western countries. The West will fight against Russia," he said.

As previously reported, President Joko Widodo in a press statement after the closing of the 43rd ASEAN Summit had mentioned the toughness of EAS.

After going through a long and difficult process, President Jokowi said that the leaders could finally agree on the EAS Leader's Joint Statement regarding the epicenter of growth.

"Once again, this is not an easy process," he said.

"Interesting geopolitical attractions that are very thick reminds me like when the G20 was in Bali. But, Alhamdulillah, consensus was achieved," he continued.