Putin seeks international support: Foreign Minister Lavrov will begin his tour of Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba on Monday

Sergei Lavrov will travel this Monday to Brazilthe first stage of a circuit that will also take you to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cubafrom where he will return to Russia on April 21.

“The head of the Foreign Ministry expects a heavy agenda that includes receptions with the leaders of these states and talks with the heads of foreign ministries,” the Russian Foreign Ministry reported in a message on Telegram. .

Lavrov “is flying to the region with a concrete program that aims to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries at the political, trade, economic, educational, humanitarian, cultural and other levels.”

“We plan to propose the strengthening of international legal institutions of the modern world, the structure on which the UN Charter is based,” the Russian Foreign Ministry added.

Lavrov will be received by his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, in Brasilia on Mondaywhere they will meet to discuss, among other things, the war in Ukraine and bilateral trade.

As the Brazilian government pointed out in a note, the two ministers will speak at the Itamaraty Palace – the seat of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – on the conflict in Ukraine, which has been going on since February 24, 2022, when Russia decided to invade this country. militarily.

Brazil maintains a neutral stance and advocated in international forums and bilateral contacts with other leaders “the immediate cessation of hostilities and the importance of combining diplomatic efforts” to achieve a “negotiated peaceful solution”.

Lavrov’s arrival comes at a time when Russia is isolated from Western powers, which have imposed tough sanctions on Moscow and sent arms to Ukraine, and coincides with controversial statements by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who said that kyiv had also taken the decision to go to war.

Vieira and Lavrov will also discuss “the potential of the strategic association between Brazil and Russia, established more than 20 years ago, and the prospects for cooperation in areas of common interest”, according to official information.

In this sense, they will seek to strengthen relations in “trade and investment, science and technology, environment, energy, defense, culture and education”, as well as to “strengthen political dialogue” on bilateral, international and regional issues.

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry stressed that in addition to the “historic ties of friendship and cooperation between Brazil and Russia”, the two countries “maintain an important commercial relationship”.

Russia is the main supplier of fertilizers to the Brazilian agricultural sectorwhose main export destination is China.

In 2022, trade between Brazil and Russia reached an all-time high of $9.8 billion.

After crossing Brazil, Lavrov will be received by the regimes of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, close allies of the Kremlin who supported Putin in his bloody war in Ukraine.

Nicolás Maduro offered Putin “full support” from the start of the war. Additionally, Russia and Venezuela celebrated the 78th anniversary of their diplomatic relations on March 14, ties that were strengthened with the arrival of the so-called Bolivarian Revolution in 1999.

The Cuban Dictator Miguel Diaz Canelalso expressed his support for Putin in his confrontation with the West during his visit to Russia in December 2022, after which he also condemned the arrest warrant issued against the head of the Kremlin by the International Criminal Court.

Recently, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushevand the head of Russia’s largest oil company, Igor Sechin.

For his part, at the end of March, the Nicaraguan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denis Moncada, met in Moscow with Lavrov, before whom he defended Moscow’s right to guarantee its “integrity and security”. Then Lavrov also decorated Laureano Ortega Murillo, son of the Nicaraguan dictator, with the Order of Friendship. Daniel Ortega.

With information from Europa Press and EFE

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