Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement and answers to media questions during a joint press conference with Foreign Minister of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Yvan Gil Pinto following their talks, Moscow, November 16, 2023
16 November 2023 15:47
2318-16-11-2023
Ladies and gentlemen,
We held meaningful talks. As usual, they took place in an atmosphere of friendship and trust. We reaffirmed our commitment to deepening our strategic partnership. Venezuela is Russia's reliable friend in Latin America and the Caribbean, and on the international stage in general.
Today, we discussed bilateral, regional and global cooperation, primarily within the United Nations. We share the view that bilateral cooperation must help make national economies more resilient, contribute to carrying out import substitution programmes, and reinforce the technological sovereignty of our countries against the backdrop of the massive sanctions campaign the West has unleashed.
Proceeding from this vision as approved by the presidents of Russia and Venezuela during their contacts, we agreed on practical steps to expand our trade and investment cooperation, as well as to promote business-to-business ties taking into consideration the current reality and the immediate as well as long-term objectives our countries have. We have devised many projects in oil extraction and developing natural gas deposits, as well as in agriculture, medicine, pharmaceuticals, communications, space and new technology. We agreed to step up our ties in all these sectors in terms of both their pace and scale as per the resolutions of the 17thmeeting of the Russia-Venezuela High-Level Intergovernmental Commission, held on October 16, 2023.
We took note of the improved connectivity between our countries. Moscow and Caracas have launched direct flights connecting the cities, as well as linking several Russian cities with Venezuela's resort zone on Isla Margarita. This helps increase the tourist volumes from Russia to Venezuela while also generating positive momentum enabling business leaders and other agencies to forge closer ties, including cultural and humanitarian exchanges. We paid a lot of attention to this topic during today's meeting.
We are seeing that young people in Venezuela are becoming increasingly interested in studying at Russian universities. Accordingly, Russia has doubled its quota for federal state-funded grants for Venezuela to 200 in the current academic year (2023/2024), compared to the previous year.
We greatly appreciate the fact that our ministries have been effective in working together. We have a plan of consultations on foreign policy matters, and there has been progress in implementing it. Our cooperation on training diplomats has also proven its value. The Foreign Ministry's Diplomatic Academy is currently hosting yet another group of our Venezuelan colleagues from the country's Foreign Ministry.
Minister Yvan Gil opened our discussion of political matters and international and other aspects of our interaction by providing a detailed update on the situation in Venezuela and the efforts undertaken by the authorities and President Nicolas Maduro to normalise the socioeconomic situation. We reiterated our assessment that the Venezuelan economic problems that surfaced in previous years were largely (if not predominantly) caused by the unilateral and illegitimate sanctions imposed by the United States, as well as the seizing of Venezuela's public assets abroad. This is absolutely unacceptable from any perspective, primarily from the standpoint of international law.
Russia consistently supports its Venezuelan friends as they defend their national sovereignty. We reiterated our readiness to continue to provide assistance in order to find political compromises between the government and the opposition to the extent required by our Venezuelan partners.
We welcome the resumption of the intra-Venezuelan dialogue. We agree with President Maduro and his government's position that a candid dialogue seeking a compromise that satisfies both sides should be based on the Venezuelan constitution. In any case, we will rely on our Venezuelan friends' approaches.
Russia participates in the intra-Venezuelan dialogue as a facilitating country and will be guided by the task of achieving a result that meets the interests of the Venezuelan people without any external interference.
We will continue to cooperate in the international arena and uphold the UN Charter principles in their entirety and interconnection, primarily, the principle of sovereign equality of states as the basis for forming a more just multipolar order. This is what the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter, as initiated by Venezuela, aims to achieve. We agreed to work on expanding the membership of this mechanism. Interest in its work is growing.
Speaking of multipolarity, we welcome Venezuela's interest in joining BRICS. Beginning January 1, 2024, Russia will chair this association. We will support our friends' desire to cooperate and actively engage within this entity.
In the regional context, we discussed the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean, paying special attention to the processes of political and economic integration in this rapidly growing region. We welcome Venezuela's commitment to strengthening regional integration mechanisms, primarily ALBA and CELAC. We expressed support for advancing the dialogue between Russia and leading Latin American and Caribbean associations. We appreciate the support provided by Caracas in this regard.
The talks were productive and timely and confirmed our mutual commitment to the comprehensive development of the Russian-Venezuelan strategic partnership, despite the scheming of our common adversaries and certain objective difficulties.
In closing, I would like to thank Minister Ivan Gil Pinto once again for the visit. We will continue to maintain an intensive dialogue aimed at facilitating and resolving all items remaining on the agenda.
Question: The French authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on charges of crimes against humanity related to the use of chemical weapons in 2013. What can you tell us about the actions of the French judiciary, considering that no clear evidence of the use of chemical weapons has been presented? How legitimate is this policy by France, a country whose leaders are responsible for the Libya crisis?
Sergey Lavrov: The Western judicial system has repeatedly demonstrated its bias both at the national and international levels. We are talking about the chemical weapons used in the Idlib de-escalation zone in 2013. This episode was widely covered.
Many independent experts, including Western journalists, have presented evidence suggesting that the notorious terrorist group, Jabhat al-Nusra, may have been implicated in this incident involving the use of chemical weapons. I have no knowledge of the assessments and facts on which the Paris court based its ruling.
Examples of biased Western justice abound. One recent example is the Dutch court ruling on the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July 2014. I have spoken about this before. First, the guilty verdict was based in part on the testimony provided by witnesses, all of whom (13 people) were anonymous. No one from the defence had the chance to speak with them and verify their testimony. The second point was the data from US satellites. The court ruling stated that they had not seen them but they "cannot disbelieve the United States." That's the kind of justice it is. I can continue citing examples, including the shameful ICC ruling.
It's a strange development. Ten years have passed, and suddenly the Paris court decided to pass this verdict. France was one of the main initiators and executors of aggression against Libya in 2011. Information was published in the Western press, including the French media, that Muammar Gaddafi was involved in the presidential election campaign in France until 2007. He made a significant contribution in support of one of the candidates. Aggression against Libya may have had a motive of removing him as a witness to how the presidential campaign in France was run. These are not fabrications. Assessments were made quite a while ago, including in the Western press. Apparently, the court in Paris has decided to revive this discussion.
Question (retranslated from Spanish, addressed to Yvan Gil Pinto): How does the Venezuelan government see Israel's actions in Gaza? Is Caracas considering the possibility of sending humanitarian aid to Gaza?
Sergey Lavrov (speaking after Yvan Gil Pinto): We talked in detail about Gaza today. I would like to re-affirm our position.
We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms. But we also strongly oppose countries combating it in ways that grossly violate international humanitarian law (indiscriminate bombing of residential areas, hospitals, kindergartens, and other public premises). As a result, thousands of innocent civilians, including children, lose their lives.
Speaking of the stance adopted by the international community, yesterday the UN Security Council shamefully requested a declaration of just one humanitarian pause and was unable to support the General Assembly language, which called for a humanitarian ceasefire as a step towards ending the exchange of fire. This says a lot primarily about the position of the United States and its closest allies.
We insist on an immediate cessation of bloodshed and the resolution of pressing humanitarian issues in Gaza, and now on the West Bank of the Jordan River as well. This is not being covered in the news since the focus is on Gaza, but dozens of people are affected by hostilities on the West Bank as well, and raids are being conducted there, which gives rise to our concerns.
In the long run, the only way to resolve this issue is to create a Palestinian state, as provided for by the UN Security Council resolutions. The longer a settlement is delayed, the more difficult it will be to ensure stability in the region.
We reiterate our position on the importance of sitting down at the negotiating table and agreeing to the creation of a Palestinian state, without delay, after hostilities are stopped and the humanitarian needs of the people of the Gaza Strip are met.
This is a complex matter. If you look at the map, you'll see that little is left of the territories where the Palestinian state should be created (especially on the West Bank of the Jordan River). Unilateral actions by the Israeli authorities have led to building settlements there. They are not recognised by the laws of any country. Even the United States condemned these actions by Tel Aviv.
Much work lies ahead. The League of Arab States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation have clearly confirmed that the two-state principle of settlement, the creation of a Palestinian state that can coexist side by side with Israel in security and neighbourliness, remains the only path that everyone must follow.
Question (retranslated from Spanish): What progress has been made so far on the introduction of Russia's Mir payment system in Venezuela? How can it help in terms of the illegitimate sanctions?
Sergey Lavrov (speaking after Yvan Gil Pinto): This aspect of our cooperation is being given much attention. I mean the creation of mechanisms, chains to protect our ties in trade, the economy and investment activity from the dictates of the United States and its allies. We discussed this at, among other formats, the High-Level Commission meeting last month.
As Minister Gil said, the Mir card is widely used in Venezuela. It will continue to be introduced on a broader scale. It is important to our citizens. At the corporate level, we are introducing the Financial Messaging System for sending financial messages from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to serve our trade and economic relations. Also, several Venezuelan banks have already opened correspondent accounts with the banks that facilitate trade between Russia and Venezuela.
We mentioned BRICS earlier today because, as we move from a bilateral to a multilateral format, it has launched a process in keeping with which the leaders of the BRICS member countries at their recent summit in Johannesburg have instructed their countries' finance ministers and central bank governors to make recommendations regarding alternative payment platforms. The process has gotten off the ground. It cannot be stopped. It is called de-dollarisation, which means a switch to a method of payment that is not pegged to the dollar.
Not only BRICS but also the Latin American countries are involved in this, as President of the Federative Republic of Brazil Luiz Lula da Silva suggested that the CELAC [the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States] also work on this issue in order to safeguard its trade and economic ties from the incidents of misuse of the role of the dollar in the global financial system that have already manifested themselves. This is a substantial process. It will help dismantle the monopoly of one currency on international settlements, making the entire system of international settlements more stable, more effective and less subject to the selfish and discriminatory plans of some Western countries.
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