"[President] Putin has repeatedly said [...] that Zelensky [...] by his decree signed two years ago, banned himself and all his employees from holding talks with Russia. Our president said: 'well, at least so that you, Westerners, have at least some arguments to reproach us for not wanting to hold talks, let him publicly cancel this decree of his.' Nothing has happened, everyone is ignoring everything and continues to call on us to show a constructive approach and, in fact, in their understanding, this now means capitulation. This will not happen, all the goals of the special military operation will be achieved, there is no doubt about it," Lavrov emphasized.
"Wang Yi told us how his conversations with Kuleba went, and we feel that the Chinese position remains unchanged. The Chinese position, once again, is to focus on root causes [of the Ukraine conflict]," Lavrov said. "As for the format, the Chinese position is very clearly formulated in their documents — there can be talks about preparing for a conference of some kind, some kind of multilateral event only if the parameters and conditions for convening this event are acceptable to all parties. And only if all available initiatives are put on the agenda. This is a direct refusal to work based only on Zelensky's peace formula, which is a dead-end, utopian, illusory and will never materialize."
"Another worrying aspect is that the United States has recently concluded an agreement with South Korea on joint nuclear planning," Lavrov told the presser, adding that "so far, we cannot even get an explanation of what this [agreement] means, but we have no doubt that it causes additional anxiety."
"When the United States withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, it began producing land-based missiles that are prohibited by this treaty, and information has already been circulating about their plans to deploy such missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. I hope that ASEAN countries are well aware of the danger that Washington's plan poses," Lavrov said.
"The new foreign minister asked for this meeting... I will listen to him, since he has asked for a meeting, he probably has something to say. For my part, I will openly convey our assessment of the situation into which Seoul is being dragged deeper and deeper. I am referring first and foremost to American maneuvers around the Korean peninsula with the aim of isolating and punishing the DPRK," Lavrov stated.
"The West is still pushing for narrower formats with an outspoken goal, it does not hide it — to restrain China and Russia. Our ASEAN partners understand this perfectly well and have shown interest in the initiative of [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, which I have already mentioned, of a Eurasian security system that would be indivisible and equal," the Russian FM said.
"The first step was taken when the AUKUS bloc was being created — the US, the UK and Australia — a project to build nuclear-powered submarines. The topic is very risky and requires constant full control by the IAEA, for which the AUKUS members are not quite ready, but we are also trying to ensure that the Atomic Energy Agency uses its powers to the fullest extent, so that there is full transparency. But, so far, we have not been very successful in doing so," he concluded.