Lavrov: The European Union has lost its sovereignty and has become a vassal of the United States

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the decisions of the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, are aimed at "double containment" of Russia and China, stressing that "the European Union has lost its sovereignty and has become subservient to the United States."

Lavrov said in press statements on Saturday - during the meeting of the Russian Foreign and Defense Policy Council - that the United States is using what is happening in Ukraine to strengthen its influence and subjugate others.

But the Russian minister went on to say that what is happening today about Ukraine accelerates the transition to a multipolar world.

He added that what he described as his old friends in the United States acknowledged to him that there was an American effort to force Russia to accept Ukraine's conditions for stopping the war.

He said the West was pressuring Russia's neighbors to cut economic and investment ties, but that "southern countries are ready to confront the dictates of the West, which have become more aggressive, including the threat of sanctions."

Hiroshima Peak

On Saturday, the final communiqué of the Hiroshima summit, which officially ends on Sunday, said in its introduction that the leaders of the Group of Seven were taking concrete steps to "support Ukraine no matter how long it takes in the face of Russia's illegal war of aggression."

The leaders stressed that they would work to strengthen disarmament and non-proliferation efforts to reach their goals of a world free of nuclear weapons, a pledge that is especially symbolic with the summit being held in the world's first city to be attacked by an atomic bomb.

Al Jazeera correspondent also reported that the leaders of the Group of Seven discussed on the second day of their summit the policies of "economic coercion" and declared that they oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force, in an implicit reference to China, which has long been accused by the countries of the group of using economic force to pressure developing countries to achieve their interests.