Lavrov Says He Disagrees with Toqayev’s 2022 Remarks on Territorial Integrity

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expressed disagreement with a past statement made by Kazakhstan's President Qasym-Jomart Toqayev regarding the balance between self-determination and the territorial integrity of states, Orda.kz reports.

Lavrov’s remarks came during an interview with Kommersant following his recent visit to Almaty for the CIS Foreign Ministers Council.

In the interview, journalist Andrei Kolesnikov asked Lavrov whether the right of nations to self-determination and the principle of territorial integrity are in conflict.

As context, Kolesnikov referenced Toqayev’s remarks at the 2022 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

Tokayev had said:

It is estimated that if the right of nations to determine themselves were to be realized, then instead of the 193 states now in the UN, there would be more than 500 or 600 states on Earth. Of course, this would be chaos.

Responding to the question, Lavrov said:

I remember this speech by the President of Kazakhstan Qasym-Jomart Toqayev. I do not agree with him. We later explained our position to our Kazakh friends. For him, there is only the right to territorial integrity. But I say again: if you are members of the UN, you must respect the Charter in its entirety. I gave the example of decolonization, which is exactly what was written in the Declaration of Principles Governing Relations between States. In principle, this is what happened there, namely that territorial integrity is respected in those states whose governments represent all the people living in a given territory.

During his recent visit to Kazakhstan, Lavrov and Kazakh Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu discussed several bilateral matters, including President Toqayev’s invitation to visit Moscow and the potential for Russian involvement in building Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant. 

Separately, Lavrov recently commented on the strike in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, where more than 20 people were killed and dozens injured. 

He said the target was not a civilian site but “another meeting of Ukrainian military leaders with their Western colleagues.”

Original Author: Igor Ulitin