BRICS member states will discuss the development of additional steps to combat the West's illegal actions in the area of world trade at an extraordinary summit of the association in the video conference format, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, addressing students and lecturers of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
"Today, a virtual BRICS summit via video conference will be held, in which our president [Vladimir Putin] will also take part. The summit is being convened at the initiative of Brazilian President [Luiz Inacio] Lula da Silva, it is devoted to the necessity to develop additional steps to counteract the West's illegal actions in the area of world trade, world finance, including a response to the so-called tariff war," he said.
"Any action meets with opposition, and there are no prohibitions that could not be circumvented, and the prohibitions in this case are overwhelmingly illegitimate, contradicting international law, WTO norms, while actions to circumvent them, accordingly, are based on agreements between the parties without any attempts to harm anyone by illegal methods," Lavrov added.