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The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, travels to Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba where on April 19 the Parliament will re-elect Miguel Díaz-Canel as head of the Cuban government. The head of Russian diplomacy seeks to deepen cooperation with his allies in the region.
Lavrov’s first stop is in Brasilia where he will be received this Monday by his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira. On the table, two topics: the war in Ukraine and bilateral trade.
Brazil claims to maintain a neutral position on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and has always defended dialogue, however, this visit coincides with controversial statements by President Lula da Silva, who recently stated that Kiev also decided to go to war.
The strategic partnership between Russia and Brazil is already 20 years old. According to official sources, there are “prospects for cooperation in areas of common interest.” In 2022, trade between Brazil and Russia reached a historical record of 9.8 billion dollars. Russia is the main supplier of fertilizers to Brazil’s powerful agricultural sector, production that is then exported mainly to China.
On this occasion, they will seek to strengthen the relationship in “trade and investment, science and technology, environment, energy, defense, culture and education”, as well as “strengthen political dialogue” on bilateral, international and regional issues, according to official Brazilian sources. .
After his visit to Brazil, the most important visit at an economic level, Lavrov will visit the Kremlin’s historical allies in the region: Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba.
Caracas, unconditional support
After Brazil, Lavrov moves to Venezuela. The two countries celebrated the 78th anniversary of their diplomatic relations on March 14. Relations that became closer with intense cooperation from 1999 when Hugo Chávez came to power.
Maduro has offered Russia “full support” in the war in Ukraine, which has not prevented the Venezuelan president from meeting with Western powers to release his oil in the face of the global energy crisis.
Russia has not fulfilled its energy commitments with Cuba
Lavrov will be in Cuba on April 19. That same day, Parliament re-elected President Díaz-Canel at the head of the country, which is facing one of the worst economic crises in recent decades. The Cuban president was already in Russia at the end of November of last year as part of an international tour that also took him to allied countries such as China, Algeria or Turkey.
On that tour he signed several oil supply agreements, but four months later, the fuel shortage continues and it is because those countries, including Russia, have not complicated their commitments. A situation that Díaz-Canel explains because they also face “a complex energy situation.”
Ortega and Putin, old allies
The friendship between the Ortega Murillo regime and the Kremlin was once again evident with the recent decoration with the Order of Friendship of Lavrov to Laureano Ortega Murillo, son of Daniel Ortega.
And at the end of March, the Nicaraguan foreign minister met his Russian counterpart in Moscow. From there, Denis Moncada defended the right of Moscow to defend its “integrity and security.”
