Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions during a joint news conference following talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia Celinda Sosa Lunda, Moscow, April 26, 2024

Ladies and gentlemen,

Today, we have held good talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia Celinda Sosa Lunda. Ms Minister and I became personally acquainted not so long ago: we were attending events as part of the G20 Ministerial Council Meeting in Rio de Janeiro in February of this year. It was then that we reaffirmed our shared intention to make comprehensive interaction between our two countries more eventful, coordinate our international steps, and promote bilateral cooperation.   

Bolivia is one of Russia’s priority and budding partners in Latin America and the Caribbean. We stated that our bilateral ties had become noticeably more active in almost all areas and were developing steadily.

We have taken stock of our bilateral cooperation and mapped further steps.  We have noted positive dynamics in various sectors, singling out issues that require more focus.

We maintain intense contacts at the high and highest levels. Ties have become more active between our parliaments, as well as between various ministries and agencies. We are interested in strengthening our partnership and taking it to a qualitatively new level. We have agreed to speed up the work on a number of intergovernmental documents in different areas.

We have a shared interest in stepping up and diversifying bilateral trade and in implementing promising investment projects. We have adopted a decision to use more actively the potential of the Russian-Bolivian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation.   

In energy, there is much potential for expanding joint activities. Gazprom and Bolivia’s YPFB Oil and Gas Company are developing the Ipati and Aquio oil and gas areas. Rosatom is building the Centre for Nuclear Technology Research and Development in El Alto, a unique pilot project for both Bolivia and the rest of Latin America.  We regard exploration and industrial development of Bolivia’s lithium deposits as an undoubtedly promising area of bilateral interaction.

Today, we covered extensively the kind of additional steps we need to take in order to identify a solution that meets the interests of our countries and reflects the balance of interests with account taken of the initiatives put forward by the Bolivian side in energy and agricultural supplies.

We noted the solid pace of our efforts to expand educational exchanges. We have increased the number of scholarships provided annually to Bolivia for its citizens to receive education at Russian universities. We talked about increasing humanitarian and sports ties. We agreed to facilitate direct contacts between business circles.

Bolivia took part in the Games of the Future in Kazan in February-March and plans to send its athletes to the BRICS Games to be held in Kazan in July. We look forward to seeing Bolivian athletes at the World Friendship Games planned to be held in Moscow and Yekaterinburg in the autumn. Our Bolivian friends have been invited to the upcoming Intervision international competition in Russia.

Notably, this year, Russia handed over the use of its pavilion at the Venice Biennale to our Latin American friends with the coordinating role of Bolivia. As we know from the reports coming from Venice, this exhibition is a great success and is very popular with the visitors.

We discussed regional and global priorities. Russia and Bolivia are consistent like-minded partners when it comes to genuine democratisation of international relations with the central and coordinating role of the United Nations, provided that we all firmly and unwaveringly follow the principles of the UN Charter in their entirety and interrelation. We are united in our understanding of the importance of relying on them as we search for ways of political and diplomatic settlement of international crises and conflicts. We are cooperating and coordinating our actions in international affairs, including in the Group of Friends in Defence of the UN Charter.

We share the opinion that, as multi-ethnic countries with diverse cultures and traditions, we can do a lot to strengthen peace and stability around the world and promote inter-civilisational dialogue and accord.

We support Bolivia's active role in the processes unfolding in Latin America and the Caribbean. We advocate the consolidation of regional integration processes, including on the basis of a platform of high standing such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. This association has recently stepped up its activities. We welcome that. We look forward to resuming soon regular ministerial meetings between Russia and the CELAC quartet, as well as other regional multilateral associations.

We are in favour of a speedy resolution of the problems plaguing the region, including a long-standing need to immediately lift the unlawful trade, economic and financial embargo against Cuba. Alongside Bolivia, we oppose attempts by external forces to interfere in the internal affairs of Latin American countries, in particular Venezuela and Nicaragua.

We touched upon cooperation between our countries within the UN. We are grateful to Bolivia for its consistent support of our initiatives, its co-sponsorship of most of the draft resolutions submitted by Russia, as well as for its balanced and principled position on what brought on the situation around Ukraine and the efforts that the Russian Federation has been undertaking in this regard, as it seeks justice to ensure security interests and rights of people living in the common space.

The talks were productive. Comrade Minister will meet with officials from other agencies, including Rosatom and the Ministry of Economic Development.

We are confident that this visit will give a boost to the bilateral agenda, and we will have every reason to report on this to our respective presidents.

Question (retranslated from Spanish): Bolivia is interested in joining BRICS. Russia chairs the association in 2024. What has been done to turn Bolivia into its full-fledged member?

Sergey Lavrov: We discussed this issue. Comrade Minister reaffirmed Bolivia’s sincere interest in joining BRICS. She emphasised its quickly growing authority and appeal amidst the Global Majority countries. These states see in it a democratic, fair alternative to the rules that the world economies, the US and its allies are trying to maintain. Such rules reflect a striving of the collective West to continue conducting affairs by using colonialist and neocolonialist practices.

Russia supports Bolivia’s aspirations. As the 2024 BRICS chair, Russia wants to ensure that as many countries as possible, that wish to get closer to the association or become its members or establish permanent partnerships, receive a concrete positive response.

The work of BRICS is based on consensus. Recently it completed regular sherpa  and sous-sherpa meetings. In early June, Nizhny Novgorod will host a foreign ministers’ meeting. One of the key items on the agenda will be a smooth and natural integration of the new members into the association and setting our common policy on its further expansion.

Question (addressed to Sosa Lunda): This is a question about bilateral cooperation. At the end of March, the Rosatom State Corporation announced that it did not rule out a possibility of building a lithium energy storage plant in Bolivia. Have there been any agreements with Rosatom on this issue? What new interesting projects can Bolivia carry out together with Russia? What areas of bilateral cooperation can they potentially develop in your opinion?

I also have a question on security. What do you think about Argentina has been amassing troops -up on its border with Bolivia and about a statement by Argentine President Javier Milei about his country’s desire to be a NATO global partner? How can this affect the situation in the region in general and in Bolivia, in particular?

Sergey Lavrov (adding after Sosa Lunda): We understand our Bolivian friends’ sentiment towards the North Atlantic alliance very well, as much as the overwhelming majority of the Global South and Global East nations. We know from our own experience what this aggressive bloc is all about (it was called “aggressive” in the past and I can’t find a better definition for it today, either).

The NATO-Russia Council was established after the advent of what everyone thought to be universal well-being. Insurmountable ideological contradictions perished, and everyone began to proclaim universal human values and common economic and security spaces. Our partners swore that the alliance wouldn’t expand. When it started expanding, they promised that it wouldn’t permanently deploy combat forces and armed units on the new territories. Their numerous promises turned out to be false. NATO officials are trying to prove that their alliance is designed to defend exclusively the territories of its member-countries. This is yet another lie.

At the same time, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that they are committed to the treaty that binds them to defend their common space but right now, they could not deal with this because they ought to gain access to the Indo-Pacific Region first. They are already creating bloc structures there, which reproduce NATO thinking and mentality. They want to build the bloc’s infrastructure there. A NATO-Japan agreement has been already announced.

Now the Asia-Pacific Region is no longer enough for them – they want to go to Latin America. I think that most countries of the Global Majority and the Global South are aware of the dangers it entails. They realise that NATO countries will pump assets out of them and will use them for their own purposes. Probably, those who prefer to deal with their domestic affairs and provide education for their citizens instead of playing this geopolitical game (which the alliance considers a zero-sum game), do the right thing.

Question: Is there a plan to step up cooperation between Russia and ALBA (of which Bolivia is a member) that was established in opposition to the US Pan-American project? What areas of cooperation would be the most promising ones?

Sergey Lavrov: We have sustainable relations and several areas of cooperation with ALBA that was established at Venezuela’s initiative. First, this is political dialogue. ALBA is truly opposing the attempts to reproduce neocolonial practices in the region. It wants these countries to decide their destiny independently. In this regard, ALBA is playing a positive role in supporting pan-regional cooperation in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

In its sub-region, ALBA is promoting CELAC’s principles and values that we support. I would also like to note active and useful political dialogue as a practical area of cooperation. Russia and ALBA support the UN reform, including its Security Council. They want these bodies to reflect more objectively the weight and lawful interests of the Global Majority countries, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Our states maintain close coordination at the UN and firm contacts on cultural and educational exchanges. The humanitarian component is playing a major role in our interaction.

A number of ALBA countries, including Bolivia and Venezuela, are members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. This creates additional opportunities for launching potential promising projects between Russia and this important regional association.