Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks and answer to a media question at a joint news conference with Foreign Minister of the Federative Republic of Brazil Carlos Fransa following talks, Moscow, November 30, 2021
30 November 202117:23
2463-30-11-2021
Ladies and gentlemen,
The talks with my Brazilian counterpart took place in an atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding which is traditional for bilateral relations. This is Mr Franсa's first visit to our country as Brazilian Foreign Minister. Once again, I would like to welcome him and the delegation.
Twenty years ago, the leaders of Russia and Brazil consolidated the strategic nature of our partnership. Today, we confirmed a clear and firm mutual commitment to further strengthen it.
Brazil is our leading economic partner in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the first nine months of this year, trade was up by 75 percent at $4.9 billion which is more than in all of 2020.
The 11th meeting of the Russian-Brazilian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation was held in Brasilia on October 25-26. Avenues were outlined to promote ties in various fields, including agriculture, nuclear energy, space, pharmaceuticals and defence industry cooperation, to name a few. Сoncrete actions to implement these agreements will contribute to the formation of a bilateral technological alliance. A strategic review of our relations in the material sphere and promising investment projects in both countries will be carried out during the high-level commission which will convene in 2022 and be chaired by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and the Vice President of Brazil.
We are mutually interested in further building up people-to-people ties, cultural and educational exchanges. The Bolshoi Theatre School which opened in Joinville, Santa Catarina, in 2000 is a symbol of this part of our strategic partnership.
We agreed to further coordinate and step up the efforts to counter the coronavirus. Prospects are good in this regard.
We share a basic approach to international and regional issues, which is to address international problems solely on the basis of international law and norms and principles enshrined in the UN Charter. We also share an interest in developing coordination in foreign policy. In this context, we discussed our work at organisations such as the UN, the G20 and BRICS. New prospects are opening up with Brazil becoming a UN Security Council member on January 1, 2022.
We agreed to continue the dialogue on pressing issues such as strategic stability, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, arms control, cyber security, and the development of universal green economy standards. The freshly signed Plan of Political Consultations between the foreign ministries of Russia and Brazil for 2022-2025 has become a potent mechanism for foreign policy coordination.
We had good and productive talks with practical outcomes for further strengthening of our foreign policy partnership and strategic relations between our two countries.
Question: The West is not hiding the fact that it is backing Kiev militarily. What does Russia think about this NATO policy which is clearly destabilising the situation in Ukraine? Being aware of the British plans to deploy its troops in Germany, is Moscow concerned that this move could nudge Kiev to try a military solution to the conflict in Donbass? If this scenario plays out, what will Russia do?
Sergey Lavrov: I can confirm that it is a well-established fact. This is not the first year that the West has been provoking Ukraine (and not only Ukraine) into taking anti-Russian actions. Drawing post-Soviet countries into NATO is a vivid example of that, and the West is well aware of what we think about these efforts.
It is all rooted in the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, when, after long deliberations, the Alliance members wrote in their declaration that Georgia and Ukraine would join NATO.
The then President of Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, instantly became electrified (which is something he does easily) and started an aggression, military operations and bombing against his own citizens and Russian peacekeepers. The then Ukrainian leadership was more prudent and did not follow a bad example. The incumbent Ukrainian authorities demonstrate somewhat different qualities and are susceptive to the bad influence that the West is trying to exert on them.
Now that the Kiev regime is frantically looking for ways to divert attention from its inability to resolve socioeconomic problems and to peacefully settle the conflict in Donbass in accordance with the Minsk Agreements, the West is hinting and is in every possible way encouraging the Kiev authorities to use military force in Donbass. This is what Washington and other Western capitals and the NATO leadership are doing.
Significant formations and military equipment of NATO countries, including US and British, are being deployed close to our borders. More forces and resources are being accumulated near the contact line in Donbass with the support of an increasing number of Western instructors. Heavy weapons, including drones, which are directly prohibited by the Minsk Agreements, are being used against Donetsk and Lugansk.
We cannot rule out the possibility that the Kiev regime might slide into a thoughtless military venture. This creates a direct threat to the security of the Russian Federation. President Vladimir Putin spoke about this at the expanded Collegium of our ministry on November 18. He stressed that we do not need conflicts, but if the West is unable to prevent Ukraine from venturing into reckless actions, and instead encourages it to do so, then we will take all the necessary steps to reliably ensure our security.
We constantly and persistently advocate the negotiation of collective agreements that would guarantee security in Europe and the Euro-Atlantic area.
Since the 1990s, a series of decisions have been made by the OSCE, which proclaimed at the highest level the principle of indivisibility of security, according to which no state should ensure its security at the expense of the security of any other state.
The West has consistently ignored and flagrantly violated these decisions, including the statements made by its own presidents and prime ministers. It has consistently expanded NATO towards the borders of the Russian Federation, moved its military infrastructure towards the east thus creating a direct threat to our security and violating the principle of indivisibility of security.
Many times, starting from the mid-2010s, we have proposed that this situation be addressed by making the principle of indivisibility of security legally binding, but the West continues to vehemently refuse to do so.
Now the President has set the task for us to sharpen this issue to the utmost, and to insist on the need to agree on long-term sustainable security guarantees. We are strongly in favour of this collective approach as opposed to an approach where everyone acts in their own interests, as the West prefers.
I hope that the Kiev regime will not follow the path chosen by Mikhail Saakashvili in August 2008.
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