World News | Prime Minister Modi is right to say multilateralism faces challenges, blames Russia for it, says Blinken

By Sahil Pandey and Sneha

New Delhi [India]March 2 (ANI): US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Thursday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was right that multilateralism faces real challenges, adding that these challenges come directly from Russia.

Read also | US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and EAM S Jaishankar discuss ways to mitigate the global impact of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Addressing the media here, Blinken said Prime Minister Modi was right to see challenges to multilateralism. He accused Russia of creating problems. “We’ve seen it play out at the United Nations, where two countries are preventing…”

“Prime Minister Modi is correct that there are challenges to the multilateral system. These challenges, in many ways, come directly from Russia, and it violates the system’s core tenets,” Secretary of State Blinken said.

Read also | EAM S Jaishankar met Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on the sidelines of the G20 meeting, calling bilateral relations “abnormal” and border tensions needed to be frankly discussed.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Modi told the G20 foreign ministers meeting that multilateralism is now in crisis and global governance has failed to fulfill its responsibilities, with developing countries facing the most serious consequences.

The US secretary of state said of the Ukraine-Russia war, “Every country continues to bear the cost of Russian aggression; if President Putin chose to do so, he could end this war tomorrow. We worked hard to stop it.”

While Blinken urged an end to the war of aggression and meaningful diplomacy to produce a lasting peace, the United States stood ready to support Ukraine diplomatically.

Speaking to reporters, Blinken confirmed that he had a brief conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, also about the new START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) nuclear arms reduction treaty.

“I urge Russia to reverse its irresponsible decision and re-implement New START, which places verifiable limits on the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Russian Federation. Mutual compliance is in the interests of both our countries. It is also in the interests of those around The world expects us to be a nuclear power,” Blinken said.

“I told the foreign minister that no matter what happens in the world or in our relationship, the United States will always be ready to engage and act in strategic arms control, just as the United States and the Soviet Union were even at the height of the Cold War,” he added.

The meeting was the first face-to-face meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which has sparked a rift between the West, led by the United States, and Russia, in more than a year.

Every country, he said, continues to bear the cost of Russian aggression. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)