Russia sees promotion of progress, prosperity for all as core task of New York

Russia on Sunday said that it is the central task of the United Nations to promote socio-economic progress and prosperity for all countries, warning that "unilateral coercive measures" are not conducive to sustainable development in the world at large.

The statement came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took the floor at the UN Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

"Promotion of socio-economic progress and prosperity of all countries and people is the core mission of our Organization," Lavrov said. "Forging a global partnership for development has been one of the most significant achievement of the UN that we all can rightly be proud of."

At the UN summit, world leaders on Friday adopted the Post-2015 Development Agenda, also known as the Sustainable Development Agenda, a set of 17 goals in all fields to end extreme poverty, promote sustainable development from 2015 to 2030.

"Russia welcomes the adoption of the new 2030 Agenda for Development," he said. "We stand ready to actively support its successful implementation at all levels."

The new development agenda is to replace the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight anti-poverty targets to be reached by the end of 2015.

"The impressive success in the achievement of the MDGs is by no means the reason for complacency," he said. "Addressing global challenges, such as eradicating extreme poverty, combating inequalities, ensuring food security and healthy lifestyles and shifting to more sustainable patterns of production and consumption, will require additional financial, industrial and technological resources, supported by an environment of constructive cooperation and mutual assistance."

"Unilateral coercive measures that are imposed in violation of the UN Charter go in direct contradiction with the achievement of the sustainable development goals," he said. "Such illegitimate restrictive actions that also undermine markets principles in trade, finance, technology and investment should be discontinued."

"This fully applies to lifting the embargo against Cuba, as well as to other sanctions which bypassed the UN Security Council," he said, without identifying the specific country, but implying the past unilateral actions by the United States.