Zakharova: Dollar has become a tool to halt countries' development

Pars Today – The spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that the dollar was initially introduced as a currency meant to facilitate global payments, but later became a tool in the hands of those who could not maintain their level of competitiveness and used every lever to halt development elsewhere in the world.

According to Pars Today, citing IRNA, Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview with BRICS TV on the sidelines of the first International Forum on Security that the instrumental use of the dollar to halt the development of countries has created major challenges, as international monetary and financial institutions have themselves become tools of political and economic pressure.

She noted that these challenges necessitate the creation of an effective response system within organizations such as BRICS.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that achieving tangible results in this area has been enshrined in the declarations of BRICS leaders, including the Kazan Summit in 2024 and the Rio de Janeiro Summit in 2025.

She also responded to a question about the role of international institutions, including BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), in the new global security architecture.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson noted that the approach of countries which believe that the world should be governed by a single decision-making center and that the world should be unipolar or bipolar is not suitable for today's world and is not supported by the global majority.

Zakharova stated that the characteristics of the new global security system are also shaped by this principle. The formation of this new system lies precisely in the rejection of such a unilateral method – a method that is not only flawed and disproportionate but also has no right to exist.

She continued that no country has the right to rebuild another country, a region, or the entire planet according to its own will.

Zakharova said that the mechanisms of the future world must put an end to the practices that were imposed by former colonial powers to suppress colonies, which later turned into policies of extreme nationalism and racial and national apartheid.

She added that those who considered themselves above the law should no longer have a place in the characteristics of the future world.