‘Divide and conquer’: West trying to pit India against China, says Russian foreign minister Lavrov

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has claimed that the West is making an attempt to drive a wedge between India and China. Lavrov mentioned the West is intentionally scary tensions between the 2 Asian neighbours, in accordance to state-run TASS information company.“Take note of the current developments in the Asia-Pacific region, which the West has started calling the Indo-Pacific region to give its policy a clear anti-China orientation – expecting thereby to additionally drive a wedge between our great friends and neighbors India and China,” Lavrov identified.“This is a policy that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently highlighted again – ‘divide and conquer,’” Lavrov added.Lavrov additionally warned that the West is looking for to erode the function of ASEAN in regional affairs. “As in other parts of the world, Western powers want to dominate here as well. They are attempting to weaken ASEAN’s central role — a framework that served everyone well for many decades,” he mentioned. ASEAN, he added, had lengthy functioned as an area of political, defence, and army cooperation between its members and exterior companions.ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a regional bloc of 10 Southeast Asian international locations Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. The group focuses on fostering financial and safety collaboration within the area.Lavrov criticised the West for undermining ASEAN’s precept of consensus and for encouraging divisive regional groupings. “The search for common ground and consensus is being set aside. Some ASEAN countries are being enticed into exclusive, confrontational formats — various troikas and quartets,” he mentioned.Lavrov additionally advocated for a continent-wide safety mechanism in Eurasia.“Eurasia is home to numerous civilisations that have preserved their identities into the modern era. And yet, it is the only continent lacking a unifying structure,” he mentioned. He referred to as for the harmonisation of pursuits amongst main powers and civilisations throughout Eurasia.He identified that whereas Africa has the African Union, and Latin America and the Caribbean are represented by way of CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), no such pan-continental organisation presently exists in Eurasia.Also learn: Russia and Ukraine to maintain their first peace talks in 3 years amid low expectations