Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez (left) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shaking hands while laughing during a meeting in Caracas on Tuesday, APril 18, 2023. Photo: Twitter/@mfa_russia.
Caracas, January 19, 2023 (OrinocoTribune.com)—Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov embarked on a busy schedule upon his arrival in Venezuela, meeting with Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yván Gil in the Casa Amarilla, headquarters of Venezuela’s foreign service, and later with Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. In the evening, Lavrov was scheduled to meet with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Lavrov, a close friend of Venezuela, arrived this Tuesday, April 18, at the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetia after visiting Brazil on a tour that will also take him to Nicaragua and Cuba. The tour has been heavily scrutinized by the White House and mainstream media that supports the US narrative of an isolated Russia. Meanwhile, a sudden tour of the region by US Southern Command chief General Laura Richardson was hastily initiated by the US.
🇷🇺🇻🇪 Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and @yvangil commenced talks in Caracas.
📷 © Maria Zakharova pic.twitter.com/4FE45dTnZH
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) April 18, 2023
In Maiquetia, Lavrov was received by Venezuela’s deputy minister for foreign affairs on Europe, Franklin Ramirez, by the Venezuelan ambassador in Moscow, Jesús Salazar, and by the Russian ambassador in Caracas, Serguéi Mélik-Bagdasárov. Lavrov’s delegation headed to Casa Amarilla and held a meeting with Minister Yván Gil and his staff to review and strengthen the strategic alliance between both countries. The meeting was followed by a press conference.
🇷🇺🇻🇪 Vice President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez is no stranger to a good friendly joke – "ambush" on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was a success.
📹 #VideoOfTheDay pic.twitter.com/FxxzJU6GFo
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) April 18, 2023
In the press conference, Minister Gil explained that during the meeting the main issue was energy. The top diplomats also discussed financial, agricultural, trade, international logistics, and military issues, along with the coordination of joint positions in multilateral forums. Gil also reiterated that Venezuela is moving forwards with its “zero sanctions” strategy, aimed at the complete lifting of illegal Western economic coercive measures—euphemistically referred to as “sanctions.”
For his part, Sergey Lavrov also criticized the recent appetite for illegal sanctions launched by the so-called democracies of the west, and pointed out that Russia abides by the UN Charter and, for that reason, was a founding member of the 17-nation Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nation that advocates for a world without illegal sanctions.
🔴 #LIVE: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey #Lavrov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela Yván Gil hold joint news conference following talks in Caracas 🇷🇺🇻🇪 https://t.co/XJd9ytN2BI
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) April 18, 2023
The top diplomats explained that on the financial front, they discussed details regarding the use of Russia’s MIR card as a payment option for tourism and trade, thus sidestepping illegal sanctions, facilitating tourism, and strengthening de-dollarizing international structures. Venezuelan authorities recently announced that over 21,000 Russian tourists have visited Venezuela since 2021.
Regarding Ukraine, Lavrov said that the claims that Ukraine’s regime will represent the interests of residents of Crimea or southeast Ukraine cannot be taken at face value while Ukraine’s “Western masters” demand that Ukraine take those territories by force, although the majority of those residents voted to join Russia in a referendum. “Our goal is to ensure the real implementation of the UN Charter and that the self-determination principle is not lifted when the so-called West says so,” said Lavrov.
🇷🇺🇻🇪 Vice President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez is no stranger to a good friendly joke – "ambush" on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was a success.
📹 #VideoOfTheDay pic.twitter.com/FxxzJU6GFo
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) April 18, 2023
Meeting with Delcy Rodríguez
Almost immediately after the meeting with Minister Gil, Lavrov held a private meeting with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez at Casa Amarilla.
News outlets jokingly covered the “ambush” that Rodriguez carried out on Lavrov while he was entering the meeting room, reflecting the extremely friendly relations that exist between Russia and Venezuela. The meeting between Lavrov and President Maduro was expected to occur in the late hours of Tuesday night.
Orinoco Tribune Special by staff
OT/JRE/SL
