In a substantive interview with Argumenty I Fakty magazine, published on the Russian Foreign Ministry website, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov touched on key aspects of Russian foreign policy, emphasizing the special nature of the relationship with China, as reflected in Xi Jinping’s recent visit, the growth of their trade in national currencies, the insanity of Western nations trying to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia, and Russia’s increasingly important relationship with Africa.
Lavrov points to the almost 10 hours of talks that Xi and Putin had in various formats during their recent meeting, and stressed the “warm, comradely and constructive atmosphere” in which these personal meetings took place. The West’s unwillingness to conduct dialogue on the principles of equality, Lavrov said, make continuing close foreign policy coordination with China all the more important. The Russian-Chinese strategic partnership “has long since transcended an exclusively bilateral context,” he emphasized. “Clearly, the world has heard our articulated, common positions on the key issues of our time.”
In this context, he said, Western insistence on the “alleged `dependence’ and `inequality’ of Russian-Chinese relations,” raised by some “experts” following Xi’s visit to Moscow, are repeated ad nauseum and are so boring that no one pays attention to them. Moscow especially appreciates Beijing’s “balanced” position on Ukraine and its policy paper on the Ukrainian situation “which overlaps our approaches.”
Lavrov’s discussion of Russia’s planning for the July Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg and U.S. and Western efforts to “torpedo” it is revealing. The West has been “trying to dissuade our African friends from taking part in it,” he explained, but added that there are fewer “volunteers willing to sacrifice their vital interests for Washington and its henchmen and to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for the former colonial powers.” So, efforts continue to try to undermine Russia’s cooperation with the states of the global South and East, although their success is far from guaranteed, he warned.
Russia has much to offer Africa, Lavrov concluded, including assistance in ensuring national security and meeting humanitarian needs. Many African nations are interested in “Russia’s participation in training their professional personnel.” Russian higher education has been in great demand among “several generations of Africans.”
A partial list of summit agenda items includes “technology transfer and development of industry and critical infrastructure in Africa,” as well as Russia’s participation in projects on digitizing African states, developing their power engineering, agriculture and mineral extraction, and ensuring their food and energy security. And these are only some of the topics that will be dealt with. Lavrov said he is certain that the summit will “provide a vector for the development of the entire range of relations with Africa in a mid-term perspective and make a tangible contribution to the effective resolution of region and international issues.”
