Kerry to Lavrov: Ignore Obama’s naming of Russia on top threats list
President Obama voiced the three most significant global threats at the UN General Assembly in September. Ebola topped his list, followed by “Russian aggression in Europe.” In third place was the threat represented by the Islamic State extremist group.
READ MORE: Russia tops ISIS threat, Ebola worst of all? Lavrov puzzled by Obama’s UN speech
The US president once again included "aggressive Russia" in his top world dangers list at the recent G20 Summit in Australia.
“I was pointing out the enumeration of threats, which Obama has allowed himself, starting with his speech at the UN General Assembly,” Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday, speaking at the State Duma (the lower house of the Russian parliament).
“Not so long ago, I was having a conversation with John Kerry and asked him what it all meant. He answered, ‘Pay it no mind’,” Lavrov said.
According to Lavrov, his American counterpart said that because he wanted to discuss the Iranian nuclear program issue and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
“It’s not appropriate for a powerful country to have such a consumer attitude to its partners,” Lavrov commented. “Where you’re needed, help us; where you’re not, obey us.”
The minister said Russia was working on helping to resolve the Iranian and Korean crises “not to please anyone,” but to help the international community avoid risks associated with these issues.
The State Department said that Kerry’s words were “incorrectly characterised" by the Russian foreign minister.
“We’ve seen the reports of Mr. Lavrov’s comments. It’s unfortunate that these reports indicate that the foreign minister has incorrectly characterized the private diplomatic discussions between himself and Secretary Kerry,” said the department’s spokesman Jeffery Rathke in Washington, DC.
“As we’ve said repeatedly we will continue to work with Russia on areas where we agree while standing firmly against Russia’s violations of international principles and the sovereignty of other nations, but that characterization is incorrect,” he elaborated. “Of course the Secretary supports the President’s statements regarding Russia and he didn’t indicate otherwise in his conversation.”