Immediately following the Sept. 29-Oct. 2 Russia-Latin America International Parliamentary Conference in Moscow—the first of its kind—, the St. Petersburg State University and the Latin America Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences sponsored the Sixth International Forum titled “Russia and Ibero-America in a Turbulent World: History and Perspectives.”
Running from Oct. 3-5, the conference was breathtaking in its scope, as seen in the program, covering a wide range of topics on the history of Russian-Ibero-American relations (Ibero-America, Spain, and Portugal), and on a variety of subjects dealing with history, culture, current affairs, and economics among many others. The conference, whose speakers included academics, government officials, diplomats, and professionals from Russia and Ibero-America, was described as an international platform “for determining the directions of development of Latin America, Spain and Portugal in a polycentric world and the prospects for Russian-Latin American cooperation.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov spoke during the conference’s plenary session to emphasize that Moscow intends to continue expanding its relations with the nations of Latin-America and the Caribbean Basin, despite “the difficult geopolitical environment and the obstacles that the collective West is creating,” TASS reported him saying.
In his greetings to the conference, which Ryabkov read, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that “we are all witnessing tectonic transformations pertaining to the ongoing formation of a fairer multipolar world.” There’s no doubt, he said, that “Latin America will gain a prominent place in the updated global architecture,” and Russia will “continue supporting efforts to increase the global role of both individual countries in Latin America and the Caribbean Basin and of the region as a whole.”
Among the topics that Ryabkov touched on was the need for “a more vigorous transition to payments in national currencies between Russia and Ibero-American countries,” to build on the trend of increasing trade that has occurred over the past five years. Both the transition to national currencies in mutual payments, and “alternative channels of banking cooperation, and new logistical chains will be required in current conditions,” he said, TASS reported. He also reported that at the next BRICS meeting in Kazan, Russia, in October of 2024, the BRICS member states will agree on a list of countries for the group’s partner countries, and, he added, “we don’t rule out that that list will include a number of Latin American countries.”
