Lavrov says US should abide by principle of sovereignty, not meddle in their affairs

US should not meddle in the affairs of other countries if it really abides by the principle of sovereignty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday at a news conference on the results of his participation in the week of high-level meetings as part of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly.

When a reporter asked him whose speech - US President Donald Trump’s or UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s - he liked more, Lavrov answered he supported the Secretary General "who firmly stands for the sovereignty of every country in the world".

"I support this [stance] very strongly," he said.

He mentioned Trump’s speech, too. "The US speaks not only with the words of its President," he said. "It says, sovereignty is the main thing and all the multilateral things are of secondary importance."

"The US Constitution and the laws on joining the UN stipulate that the country gives priority to national legislation but none of the previous Administrations has pursued this line so openly and toughly," he said.

"On the other hand, if the US is committed to sovereignty as the fundamental principle, it shouldn’t meddle in other countries’ affairs then," Lavrov said.

He called multilateralism "a necessity of the day when all the problems turn into cross-border ones, when technologies unite the whole world and make it possible to organize life in a totally different way by giving opportunities to those who want economic and social development to bring benefits to people."

"But technologies also give opportunities to those who want to use them for malign purposes, like extremists, terrorists and other criminals," Lavrov said.