Former colonizers need to leave behind the way they seized territories on the African continent, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following talks with Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop on Tuesday in the republic's capital.
"Together with our Malian friends and the majority of other African countries, we believe that former metropoles need to forget about how they seized and exploited these territories, this continent, and they should get used to the fact that the world has changed," the Russian foreign minister said.
Lavrov recalled that the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples was not simulated diplomacy, but the document unanimously approved by the UN General Assembly. "As such, it is binding, so former metropoles must respect the decisions made on a universal basis and know their place in the current format of international relations," he stressed.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS