International order in transition to fairer model: Russian FM

The system of international relations is currently evolving into a newer, fairer and more democratic model, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

This "objective" transition is changing the old mono-centric model to a polycentric one, Lavrov told a scientific conference at the Moscow-based International Affairs Institute.

He said the new system should reflect diversities of geography and civilization in the modern world, adding that the process faces many obstacles.

"Some countries strive at any price to preserve global dominance and impose their opinions, will, values on other members in the international community," the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.

Those attempts have led to increasing chaos in international relations, he said, accusing the West of not supporting the supremacy of international law.

Stressing that Russia sees the United Nations as the supreme structure built to protect a legal world order, the diplomat said the world body should not be a place for bulling certain countries like Venezuela, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We are against (the situation when) certain countries to be chosen as targets for constant punishment via numerous resolutions," he said.

Meanwhile, Lavrov expressed his concern about attempts to hinder the establishment of working groups within the Trilateral Contact Group involving the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Russia and Ukraine on the Ukraine crisis.

He also warned that Kiev might disrupt the implementation of the Minsk ceasefire accords and ask the West for military assistance.

Kiev, along with Western countries, has long accused Moscow of aiding insurgents in eastern Ukraine, but Moscow has consistently rejected such accusations. Endi