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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United States “perfectly understands” Russia’s position, warning that while Brussels appears to prepare for war, such a scenario is unrealistic. Lavrov emphasized Moscow’s view on rising tensions with NATO and Europe.
00:00So how do you assess contemporary manifestations of neo-colonialism by Western countries,
00:06which in the view of many are expressed not only through economic pressure,
00:10but also through unilateral military operations, sanctions,
00:15and attempts to overthrow legitimate governments in sovereign states?
00:19And in this regard, can the solidarity stance of the global South,
00:23demonstrated in the case of Venezuela,
00:25be considered a key element in building a new, more just world order, free of such practices?
00:33Thank you very much.
00:35No, you are right.
00:39When the unfortunate events happened in Venezuela,
00:44Namibia issued a statement where we expressed our dismay at those events.
00:53We referred to them as a blatant violation of international law
00:58and the violation of the UN Charter.
01:04Venezuela is a country of the global South.
01:08It's a country that is a product of resistance.
01:11And that's why in our statement we made the reference to the declaration of granting independence to colonial territories.
01:23We are past that stage.
01:25We do not want to go back there.
01:28You are also right in the sense that the solidarity from the global South was evident
01:35because in our statement, we called, we supported the convening of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
01:46We are happy that it met.
01:49But not many countries had the chance to air their views.
01:53Yes, the voice that we have as countries of the global South, also the global East, is our voice.
02:01That's our weapon for us to come out strongly in defense of the defense of international law
02:08in the United Nations Charter.
02:10And we hope that the global South will stand together with the people of Venezuela.
02:15According to our constitution, our foreign policy stands on peaceful solution of disputes.
02:23And that is what we are going to continue to emphasize.
02:30Next question, task agency.
02:35Hello, Pavel Tukanoff, task agency, Minister Labrov.
02:38I have the following question.
02:40Donald Trump announced the 25% tariffs against all countries cooperating with Iran.
02:47What's your take on this statement?
02:49And in your view, can the statement make an impact on bilateral relations between Moscow and Tehran?
02:57I do not think that any third country could change in principle the relations between Moscow and Tehran.
03:05They are building upon arrangements that were reached between presidents of Russia and president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
03:14And they meet the interests of the two states, two peoples.
03:19And it is reflected in a host of practical material projects, such as the construction of Boucher nuclear power plant,
03:33the implementation of plans in transport infrastructure, such as international north-south corridor,
03:42and many other issues on the agenda of Russia-Iran relations and that are of special importance,
03:50including for the development of the whole region, the Eurasian continent.
03:58And naturally, when the United States starts acting solely and exceptionally ignoring all the norms
04:10that the Americans have been advocating and promoting the model that they called globalization,
04:20and as I've already mentioned, after that they abandoned all their principles.
04:27And this gives food for thought.
04:32This makes us believe that our American colleagues might not be reliable when they act in such a way
04:38and betting on the following wherever there is oil or some other important strategic natural resources
04:52and thinking about advancing only its own interest using threats and direct pressure, namely tariffs,
05:06for instance, for instance, partners of Iran see the 25 percent tariffs.
05:12When it comes to Russia, there is the Senator Lindsey Graham.
05:16He is listed in the relevant Russian lists.
05:19And recently he has been quite active.
05:22He has been promoting the 500 percent tariff initiative with all countries that trade with Russia.
05:31One such a strong country as the United States is acting,
05:33it's not necessarily a pure shutdown.
05:33Yeah.
05:36You can smile about it.
05:38You can be angry about that.
05:40You can reject that.
05:42But I believe that we simply need to keep on working and implementing the arrangements
05:46that we have with Iran, that Russia has with all its trade and economic partners.
05:53When such a strong country as the United States is acting with such malevolent means and using unfair play, it only says that the competitive position of the United States has been gradually becoming worse.
06:15Probably there are some more fair ways to champion its own position rather than a direct discriminatory use of sanction leverage.
06:33This cannot last for long. This would lead to even a more severe crisis in international economic, international political relations.
06:43And in the dialogue that we have with Washington that we want to continue, we talk about that frankly and we frankly discuss the need to sort out the mass when it comes to the means that are applied in the international arena.
07:04Thank you. And a recapping questions, Vizda.
07:08Andrey Vakul, Vizda TV channel. A question to Minister Lavrov.
07:13Reportedly, U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff together with Kushner are going to come to Moscow shortly to meet Vladimir Putin.
07:25How would you comment on that? And what does Moscow expect from the new round of consultations on Ukraine?
07:32Are there, is there any, is there any progress on Ukraine?
07:36President Putin over the past weeks during various events has repeatedly reaffirmed our position.
07:45We are open for negotiations on Ukraine provided that these negotiations are serious
07:52and provided that people that are interested in such negotiations are indeed ready for them and they have something to say.
08:05I just, I would like to highlight why I believe that all initiatives should be serious.
08:14Recently, President Macron has once again claimed that he would definitely call Putin in the upcoming weeks.
08:24It's not the first time he says that.
08:26Well, for starters, we are all adults and when adults take official positions
08:32and especially when they want to discuss war and peace, probably you should suggest having the relevant contacts.
08:47When, for instance, in case of Mr. Macron, somebody says,
08:51I will talk, we will definitely need to talk with Putin
08:55and in a couple of weeks' time I will come up with something that is not serious.
09:00That is just a PR campaign.
09:04That's a megaphone, microphone diplomacy that never led to anything good.
09:12Putin is always open to serious conversation.
09:16In all previous meetings with the special envoy of the U.S. President,
09:21Mr. Witkoff and recently Mr. Kushner joined the conversation.
09:30This was serious conversations,
09:33substantive conversations that were aimed at addressing the root causes of the crisis in Ukraine
09:40and to elaborate ways to address these root causes
09:44because without doing that, we cannot achieve lasting peace.
09:48And everyone, especially Europeans, in particular Germany, Great Britain,
09:56are talking about ceasefire for 60 days, 60 days ceasefire or permanent ceasefire.
10:06They are talking about it as a priority, but this is not, it's not serious.
10:11But we are ready to have a conversation with these representatives.
10:15But when they are talking about ceasefire and everything else is secondary,
10:24why are they doing that?
10:25They want just to buy time in order to support the Kyiv regime,
10:31to keep the Kyiv regime in power.
10:34And all the initiatives that are being discussed by Europe in particular,
10:40the initiatives that was discussed in Paris in presence of Witkoff and Kushner,
10:47all these initiatives are aimed at keeping in the part of Ukraine
10:55that they hope will remain after the crisis is settled.
10:59They want to keep the Nazi regime that obediently carries out the will of the Brussels,
11:09of the European Union, of the will of NATO.
11:14Brussels is interested in preparing to war with Russia.
11:19That's what our European colleagues want, but judging from our previous contacts
11:27with the United States, starting from the U.S.-Russia summit in Anchorage
11:33and following the subsequent contacts with Witkoff and Kushner,
11:38we see that the United States understand that such scenario is unrealistic.
11:45They want to curb any attempts to drag Ukraine into NATO.
11:55They understand that without addressing the issue that is related to the fate of people
12:01that live in Crimea, Novorossia, and Donbass,
12:06that who categorically reject the Kyiv regime,
12:10and that's why they expressed their position to accede to Russia.
12:18Without addressing this issue, we won't achieve anything good,
12:22and Americans perfectly understand it.
12:24We are open to contacts with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner.
12:33Mr. Kushner, President Putin met with Steve Witkoff several times,
12:40and I'm sure, I'm confident that if they're interested in having another meeting,
12:47we will understand their interest.
12:49As for the progress being made in our negotiations,
12:58we don't know, because if we're talking about negotiations that took place in Paris,
13:06the so-called coalition of the willing that was attended by Zelensky,
13:10and where Witkoff and Kushner were invited,
13:16they have issued their document, the Declaration of Intent,
13:21to which the United States didn't join.
13:27So we have no information what really happened there
13:31and what stands behind this declaration.
13:35If our American colleagues are interested in letting us know what happened there,
13:45then we are interested in this meeting taking into account the fact that
13:49our contacts, our Russia-American contacts on Ukraine,
13:54are based on the strong foundation that were laid by the summit-level meeting in Alaska,
14:01where an understanding was reached both by Russian and American-sized colleagues.
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