CARACAS (AFP) -Russia has speeded up its bilateral relations with Brazil and Venezuela. Russia and Venezuela agreed in talks with top diplomats and other senior officials in the South American country to finalize hundreds of bilateral agreements covering finance, energy, agriculture and other sectors.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ivan Gil held a joint press conference hours after Lavrov arrived in Caracas as the second destination of his four Latin American trip. The two pledged continued support for each other’s countries and condemned the economic sanctions Washington has imposed on them.
“We fully support the position of our Venezuelan friends,” Lavrov said. “It’s their country… In any way, we will help the Venezuelan economy become independent from the pressures of the United States and other Western countries. “
Lavrov’s remarks were translated from Russian into Spanish by a government-provided translator.
Officials reviewed some of the hundreds of agreements between the two countries covering finance, energy, agriculture and other areas.
Gil and Lavrov, who are scheduled to meet with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, said their country is developing an alternative to SWIFT, a system that enables global financial transactions. Those banks were closed as part of economic sanctions imposed on Russia at the start of the war in Ukraine last year.
Alongside China, Russia is an unconditional ally of the Venezuelan government. With his support, he was able to avoid crippling economic sanctions aimed at deporting Maduro.
Falling global oil prices and government mismanagement over the past decade have plunged Venezuela into political, social and economic crisis. This crisis has characterized President Maduro’s entire tenure. The crisis has prompted the Trump administration to make ousting Maduro one of its top foreign policy priorities and apply economic sanctions to Venezuela’s state-owned energy company to drain the country’s most precious resource, oil. from several western markets.
The Biden administration has lifted some sanctions and is open to easing sanctions, including a promise not to ban candidates from opposition primary elections later this year, in exchange for concrete moves by President Maduro.
“We have not seen any easing of sanctions,” Gill told reporters. Relief measures already in place by the U.S. government include allowing oil giant Chevron to resume restricted oil production in Venezuela on a six-month trial basis and removing First Lady Syria from the list of sanctioned persons.
Lavrov kicked off his Latin American tour with a stop in Brazil on Monday. In Brazil, the government of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva seeks to simultaneously build ties with China, Europe and the United States while keeping the door open to Russia. During a visit to Dubai, Lula said Russia and Ukraine share responsibility for the war.
Lavrov also plans to visit Cuba and Nicaragua this week.
Even before Venezuela united in the fight against sanctions, it had close ties with Russia, buying helicopters, fighter jets and Kalashnikov rifles for millions of dollars.
Earlier this,Russia’s foreign minister met with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, and Washington criticized recent comments by South American leaders about US support for Ukraine’s defense.
Lula has just returned from a trip to China and the United Arab Emirates, during which he alarmed the West by accusing the US of “facilitating war” in Ukraine.
He also said that the United States and Europe “must start talking about peace”, and that in February 2022 Russian forces would invade Ukraine, turning the democratically elected government and Ukraine’s annexes into pro-Western powers. He said Kiev was responsible for the conflict that began when it was overthrown.
His comments echo the language commonly used by Moscow and Beijing to blame the West for the war.
Despite Lula’s comments about the United States, the 77-year-old, who returned to power in January after serving two terms from 2003 to 2010, is also seeking closer ties with Washington.
His visit to China and the UAE, postponed by a bout of pneumonia, came after a White House meeting in February with US President Joe Biden.
Lavrov Latin America tour
Brazil has not joined Western nations in imposing sanctions on Russia for its invasion, and has refused requests to supply ammunition to Ukraine.
Lavrov’s trip to Brazil comes after Lula’s top foreign policy adviser, Celso Amorim, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in March to discuss opening peace talks.
Brazil is Lavrov’s first stop on a weeklong Latin American tour that will also include Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba – countries whose leftist governments have hostile relations with the United States. Lavrov and Vieira said talks would also focus on energy and trade.
About a quarter of Brazil’s agricultural powerhouse’s fertilizer imports come from Russia, and the two countries made him $9.8 billion in net profits in bilateral trade last year.
