Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a joint news conference following talks with Foreign Minister of the State of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, Moscow, March 14, 2022

Ladies and gentlemen,

We had useful and substantive talks with my Qatari colleague and friend, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani.

Obviously, we spent much time talking about Ukraine. I explained that the current crisis had simmered for many years with the connivance of our Western colleagues who were sponsoring the Kiev regime. I updated my colleague on the special military operation, which is being conducted to protect the people in Donbass from a direct military threat, and to achieve our demilitarisation and denazification goals, including at the talks. They were initiated a week ago and are ongoing on the Belarusian platform and via videoconference. I told him about my meeting with Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey. We spoke about Russia’s attention to humanitarian matters, the creation of corridors to evacuate civilians from the zone of hostilities, and the delivery of emergency humanitarian aid, including medicines and essentials, from Russia to the people in the relevant regions of Ukraine.

We appreciate the attention being given to the current situation by the Qatari leaders, and personally by Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Qatar is willing and is trying to use any potential to help reach an agreement on the current agenda, with due regard for the interests of common European security, including the  security of Russia and Ukraine, and the importance of precluding any threat from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, to people who want to protect the Russian language, culture and traditions, among them the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church, and who want to live in their country without being discriminated against, especially in connection with neo-Nazi manifestations.

We believe that it was a useful conversation. We agreed to maintain contact on this issue. We appreciate Qatar’s interest in promoting the achievement of these goals.

We discussed our consistently developing bilateral relations. This meets the long-term interests of our states. We have coordinated additional measures that we will take to maintain the positive dynamics of our trade and to boost our investment cooperation in accordance with the agreements reached by President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The next meeting of the Russia-Qatar Commission on Trade, Economic and Technological Cooperation will be held in Doha this year.

There are good prospects and mutual interest in continuing the coordination on the global energy market, including within the framework of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. The Russian Direct Investment Fund is cooperating with the Qatar Investment Authority and is implementing a large package of joint projects with it.

We maintain traditionally close ties with Qatar on current issues in the Middle East and North Africa. The potential for conflict and the risk of aggravating current crises are very high there.

Regarding Syria, we stand for the full and comprehensive implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2254. We updated our colleagues on the activities of the Astana format. The next trilateral meeting will be held soon and will be attended by observer states and the Syrian parties. We are aware of Qatar’s interest in working together with Russia and Turkey to promote a solution to humanitarian problems in Syria.

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen recently visited Russia. I also met with him in Antalya on March 10. We reaffirmed our plans to resume the functioning of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva in late March 2022. It is necessary to build up emergency humanitarian assistance for the Syrians, including the implementation of the early recovery projects, such as the resumption of electricity supply, medical services, housing construction and education. All member states of the UN Security Council spoke up for this in July 2021 by adopting the relevant resolution. It has not yet gained traction. We have been working at the UN to draw the attention of the leadership of international organisations and donors to the importance of implementing this call of the UN Security Council.

We have been working together to promote a settlement in Libya, which has come against complications.

Russia and Qatar stand for consolidating international efforts as soon as possible to resume the Palestinian-Israeli talks aimed at settling the main issues of the permanent (final) status of the Palestinian state and attaining a comprehensive peaceful settlement. I would like to note the special importance of restoring Palestinian unity. Russia and Qatar can and have been trying to contribute to the attainment of this crucial goal.

The situation in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign troops should be kept in the focus of international attention every day. Qatar and other external players are playing an important role in efforts to stabilise the situation there, including by financing humanitarian programmes, which the people in that long-suffering country badly need.

We have a broad agenda. The talks we held today have helped us make headway in analysing our ability to contribute to settling numerous global problems.