Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s claim that the war in Ukraine was “launched against” Russia drew laughter at a major conference of Indo-Pacific officials.
“The war — which we are trying to stop, which was launched against us, using Ukrai—” Lavrov said, as the crowd began to guffaw.
RUSSIA INCHING CLOSE TO CAPTURING BAKHMUT IN UKRAINE
It was a derisive conclusion to an appearance that Lavrov largely had dominated up to that point with a blend of talking points about NATO expansion, criticism of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which drew scattered applause from the same assembly, and his own mockery of skeptical questions. The reception of his performance punctuated the appeal and limitations of Russian arguments among developing and historically nonaligned states, where many observers sympathize with Moscow’s critique of Western powers without endorsing the invasion of Ukraine.
“You would be [an] ideal propagandist of the Soviet Union style,” Lavrov sneered when pressed to articulate an “endgame” for a war that has proven costly for developing countries. “I am trying to explain to you that it is not black and white — that the sufferings of others are not related to what we are doing in Ukraine to defend ourselves at all. These sufferings are related to the sanctions — to the policy of blackmail, the policy of diktat — which the West is promoting.”
Ukrainian officials piled on the scorn after Lavrov's final statement flopped. "A joker, jester or jerk. A joker is a funny character found in circus while a jester is a person who is employed to entertain his master," Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya, who represents Kyiv at the United Nations, tweeted. "'The war that was launched against us,' says bathetic [L]avrov making fun of himself provoking humiliating audience laughter. Ignominious jerk!"
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top envoy advanced that argument at the Raisina Dialogue 2023 in New Delhi, a diplomatic and security conference that functioned as a public airing of the debate that “marred” the G-20 foreign minister’s meeting this week as Secretary of State Antony Blinken put it.
“We’re rightly focused on what is happening in Ukraine as a result of the Russian aggression, not just because it matters to Ukrainians and to Ukraine and to Europe but because it matters to the entire world,” Blinken said earlier Friday. “And part of the reason that countries way beyond Europe are also so focused on this and are working to support Ukraine and deal with the challenge is because they know it could have an effect here. If we allow with impunity Russia to do what it’s doing in Ukraine, then that’s a message to would-be aggressors everywhere that they may be able to get away with it too.”
The staging and framing of the conversation pointed to the strengths and weaknesses of the Russian diplomatic position. Lavrov’s interlocutor, Observer Research Foundation Chairman Sunjoy Joshi, referred to the invasion as a “long and protracted war about NATO expansion,” a rhetorical nod to Moscow’s position that belied the subsequent series of critical questions. Lavrov appeared on the stage alone, in contrast to current and former Western officials who participated in multiple panels alongside Indian officials and representatives of other governments, and disputed Lavrov’s claim that Russia has been beleaguered by NATO.
"When I was a NATO supreme allied commander, I had Russian officers on my staff. ... When I was a U.S. [Central Command] commander, I had a Russian officer on my staff,” former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the gathering. “The Russian army knew that NATO was no threat. To this day, they know that, and we can prove it because they have moved their troops off the NATO line, and they’re [now] attacking Ukraine. You would not do that if you had an ounce of intelligence, if you thought there was a threat from NATO. They know NATO is no threat.”
Russia’s struggles in the war, according to India’s top general, have taught military leaders in New Delhi that they should stockpile large quantities of weaponry. “We can't be dependent on suppliers of our weapon systems, etc., from outside — that’s one big lesson that we take from this particular conflict,” Indian Gen. Anil Chauhan, chief of defense staff, said during the panel with Mattis. "Today and yesterday in Bakhmut, as we see, even a 3-kilometer is being claimed as a success by the Russians, by the same army that prided itself [on] a deep battle kind of a concept. ... Now [they] got stuck into a kind of warfare, which is reminiscent of what you could say was [the] First World War.”
India has a decadeslong tradition of purchasing Russian weapons, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has moved recently to prioritize domestic defense production. Lavrov, for his part, complained about India joining the Quad — a bloc of four Indo-Pacific democracies that includes Australia, Japan, and the United States.
“We never engage in playing any country against any other country,” he insisted. “And this is, unfortunately, what is being tried by some other outside players in the context of so-called Indo-Pacific strategies ... in the context of using Quad not for economic purposes but trying to militarize [the] Quad.”
Lavrov aired that complaint hours after a celebratory public gathering of Quad foreign ministers. "If I were to look at India’s ties with the U.S., it became much deeper; with Japan also it grew. And I think the real big change has been in the last decade with Australia,” Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam said. “So in a way, Quad is working in 2023 partly, as I said, because we have greater strategic clarity.”
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Still, Lavrov nurtured the hope that India would be a “reliable” buyer of Russian energy exports over the coming decades.
“We would not anymore rely on any partners in the West,” Lavrov said. “And the energy policy of Russia will be oriented towards reliable partners, credible partners. India and China are certainly among them.”