The foreign ministers of Russia and Venezuela meet, with the war in Ukraine as a backdrop

First modification: 04/07/2022 – 22:14

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faría and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov met in Moscow on Monday, July 4, to discuss bilateral issues.

Both ministers reviewed the cooperation in at least 20 areas and addressed issues that arise “for the near future.”

Lavrov was convinced that, under the leadership of the Venezuelan minister, who was Venezuela’s ambassador to Russia for five years before being appointed foreign minister, the development of friendship ties and the strategic partnership between the two countries will “accelerate”.

The war in Ukraine, central theme of the meeting

At the beginning of the conversation, the Russian foreign minister applauded the “gradual normalization” of the situation in Venezuela between the government and the opposition.

Lavrov assured that “in the event that the government and the opposition platform decide to resume their negotiations in Mexico”, stalled by the ruling party since October 2021 in protest at the extradition to the United States of Colombian businessman Álex Saab, “Russia will be willing to continue its follow-up of this international platform for dialogue”.

Faría did not hesitate to thank his Russian counterpart for “all the support” that Russia has given them “on political issues,” especially “on the issue of national politics,” said the Venezuelan foreign minister.

In order to demonstrate to Russia that the support is mutual, Faría condemned “in a very important way the large number of sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation and its people” by the West. In Faría’s opinion, the sanctions were “a bad calculation, a terrible calculation, an unforgivable calculation.”

The Venezuelan Foreign Minister added that while the economies of the United States and the European Union (EU) have encountered “a big problem” that “they don’t know how to deal with,” the Russian economy “continues on with certain drawbacks, despite all this damage that was intended to be done,” he said.

Faría also condemned the “permanent injection of military technology” by the West into kyiv. According to the Venezuelan foreign minister, the shipment of weapons to Ukraine maintains and fuels the conflict.

The Venezuelan official also considered it essential that Russia receive security guarantees, especially now, with the possible entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO.

When asked about this matter, Lavrov assured that Russia is following “the situation closely” and that he hopes that these countries maintain “the lack of interest in deploying NATO’s military infrastructure on Finnish territory.”

Russia and Venezuela, a consolidated relationship

The meeting between Faría and Lavrov takes place after the conclusion of the tour of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, through Tehran, Turkey, Algeria, Kuwait, Qatar and Azerbaijan.

According to Moscow, the strategic partnership between Russia and Venezuela is “developing dynamically” and the two countries have accumulated “rich experience in cooperation in the commercial, economic, scientific, technical, cultural and humanitarian areas.”

Nicolás Maduro and Vladimir Putin have had two telephone conversations so far this year and on February 16 a Russian delegation was in Caracas, situations that reflect the good relationship between the two.

With EFE, AP and Reuters