Moscow, Jun 2 (IANS): BRICS countries will defend and strengthen multilateralism amid Western attempts to impose a "rules-based world order", Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday during a press conference following the meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs held via video link.

"All BRICS countries stressed the need to strengthen multilateralism, not within some abstract format, but through a universal format that is based on the framework of the United Nations (UN) Charter," Lavrov said, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The UN is the greatest possible embodiment of multilateralism in our world, and we will defend exactly this approach, especially in light of attempts by our Western colleagues to promote an alternative concept, which they call a 'rules-based world order,'" he added.

The minister said that through this concept, the West is attempting to impose its own values, which are not shared by other countries.

Such ideas divide rather than unite the world's countries and this is why the BRICS foreign ministers' statement "in support of strengthening multilateralism" in its universal form is particularly significant at this stage, the minister said.