Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at a joint news conference following talks with Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources Carlos Mesquita, Maputo, Mozambique, May 31, 2023

Mr Minister,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi and Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources of Mozambique Carlos Mesquita for their warm, cordial reception.

Minister Carlos Mesquita described in detail our intensive talks that demonstrated our willingness to continue building up our cooperation in all areas.

President Filipe Nyusi confirmed that Mozambique considers it a priority to develop relations with the Russian Federation, which are rooted in the distant past when the struggle for decolonisation was unfolding. After Mozambique gained independence, our country made a large contribution to the development of its statehood, the economy and social links.

We reaffirmed Russia’s solidarity with our Mozambican friends. We made a special emphasis of our support for the efforts by the President and his government to stabilise the situation in the country, primarily, by removing the terrorist threat.

We noted good dynamics in trade that has increased by more than 10 percent in 2022. However, the figures do not correspond to the potential of our two countries.

We noted the need to make fuller use of the potential of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. At its meeting in November 2022, the commission made decisions allowing us to broaden the scope of our cooperation.

Many Russian companies are interested in the Mozambican market, for instance, Kamaz, Inter RAO-Export, and the Pipe Metallurgical Company. Now we are discussing the possibility of involving our business people in implementing interesting large-scale and structural projects in Mozambique.

We confirmed our invitation for a Mozambique delegation to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June. It will provide a good opportunity for contacts between business people. Promising, mutually beneficial ideas often come about during such contacts.

We agreed to prepare a third meeting of the working group on military-technical cooperation that was on pause due to COVID-19 restrictions. To further develop our positive experience, we are willing to supply our Mozambican friends with military products, in part, for enhancing their defence capacity and for counterterrorism purposes.

Considering the interest displayed by Mozambique in education in Russia, we doubled the number of grants from the outgoing academic year and will allocate more grants for the new academic year starting in September. Along with universities, students from Mozambique are interested in receiving an education at our colleges and technical schools. A relevant memorandum is ready for signing.

Russia traditionally renders humanitarian aid to Mozambique, primarily food via the World Food Programme. Another consignment of humanitarian aid will arrive in a port of Mozambique in the next few days.

Interparliamentary ties are also on the rise. In 2022, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko and President of the Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique Esperança Bias exchanged visits. Inter-party ties received a boost at Russia's initiative. A forum of campaigners against modern practices of neocolonialism is in the works; it will take place in Russia in October 2023.

We have a convergence of approaches on international issues across the board. Like our Mozambican friends, we believe that there is no alternative to international law and the principles of the UN Charter, which must be applied without double standards in their entirety and interrelations, including the principle of sovereign equality of states.

We do not accept any “rules” invented by Washington to replace international law. First, no one has seen them; second, they do not make any legal sense, and third, they boil down to “you should do as we say.”

We work closely together at the United Nations. Mozambique is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2023-2024. March 2023 marked Mozambique’s first presidency of this main body of the United Nations.

We share opinions on most issues on the UN agenda, and cooperate on the agenda related to African issues in the UN Security Council. We appreciate Mozambique's contribution to the efforts of the African Union and the Southern African Development Community to calm the situation on certain parts of the continent and to conduct peacekeeping operations. We will continue to support our Mozambican friends’ moves in the UN Security Council under the “African solutions to African problems” approach.

We discussed at length the developments in Ukraine, a crisis that resulted from the policy the collective West pursued for a long time to contain and weaken Russia through the expansion of NATO close to our borders and turning Ukraine into an anti-Russia bridgehead through the use of the Kiev regime to unleash a crude, aggressive, Russophobic and racist campaign.

As Minister Carlos Mesquita said, we talked about preparations for the second Russia-Africa Summit, which will be held in St Petersburg at the end of July. We are expecting a high-ranking delegation from Mozambique led by President Filipe Nyusi. In addition to the forum programme, a bilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia and Mozambique will be held on the sidelines.

I would like to once again express my gratitude to our Mozambican hosts for this useful and timely meeting and for a frank and trust-based conversation. We look forward to seeing you again.

Question (retranslated from Portuguese): US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety had something to say about the Russian ship Lady R which was allegedly carrying weapons. What can you say to these accusations?

Sergey Lavrov: In other words, you have no interest in Mozambique whatsoever?

Just like the Russian Federation, the Republic of South Africa is a sovereign state. We are building relations with it in full compliance with international legal norms and principles. Should either party have any questions concerning any area of our cooperation, we address these issues on a bilateral basis. If the American or any other overseas ambassador thought he or she saw something, they should mind their own business and not get involved in other people's affairs.

Regarding weapons supplies – which, I understand, got your attention – I am here to reiterate that we never violate international rules, whereas our Western colleagues do violate them. Having declared neutrality with regard to the events in Ukraine, they keep flooding that country with enormous supplies of modern long-range weapons, which are not safe, including for those who use them. I am talking about shells with depleted uranium. The West is giving weapons to a regime whose official representatives publicly threaten to kill all Russians. The US ambassadors would be better off thinking about their own image in the eyes of the international public.

Question (retranslated from Portuguese): The BRICS foreign ministers will meet in Cape Town later this week. What’s your take on the prospects for this meeting? Preparations are underway for the BRICS summit in South Africa. How likely is President Putin to take part in this with the well-known ruling of the international court in place?

Sergey Lavrov: Regarding the BRICS ministerial meeting, I encourage you to attend. There will probably be a news conference. We will update you on every matter in question.

As for the “International Criminal Court” ruling, it is not legally binding on us or the vast majority of other countries.

You can reach out to the US ambassador that you mentioned or a US ambassador in any other country and ask for clarifications. When this “International Criminal Court” suddenly decided to investigate the crimes committed by the Americans in Afghanistan, the President of the United States said if they dared to go ahead with it, he would impose sanctions on all of them. That is, the Americans themselves, whose opinion you lovingly refer to, couldn’t care less about this outfit. If someone, in particular, someone who speaks fluent English, has decided to use this “tool” against Russia, then once again I would like to cite the untenable nature of the rules that the West is trying to impose in order to resolve international issues solely to its own benefit, similar to the colonial powers, and live at the expense of other nations.

Question (retranslated from Portuguese): Five agreements on cooperation in defence, security, and natural resources, among others, were signed in 2019. What is the status of the implementation of these agreements?

Sergey Lavrov: With regard to the defence and security, trade, economic and humanitarian development agreements, they are all being acted on. The Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation is operational; a meeting of the Working Group on Defence Cooperation is being prepared, and ties in education are being expanded. I mentioned this in my opening remarks.

Question (retranslated from Portuguese): How does Russia assess the Mozambican leaders’ neutrality in light of the calls for opening a dialogue?

Sergey Lavrov: We appreciate and respect Mozambique’s balanced approach. It is willing to decide on its position itself. After the West supported the coup in Ukraine, we spent many years trying to make clear that turning this country into an anti-Russia foothold and drawing it into NATO to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation was a dangerous policy.

We have provided a detailed account of the reasons and lack of alternative to the special military operation. The West condemned our actions. All other countries, the countries of the Global South and the Global Majority have heard them and our position as well. As great democrats, our Western colleagues should have allowed other countries to form an independent approach to unfolding developments. They are aware of Russia’s arguments and the West’s position.

Ukraine is discussed at our meetings here and in other countries where we travel, as well as during our meetings with the guests who come to see us. We present our assessments and approaches. As everyone among us is well aware, the West does not come up with any approaches. They just come and say that Russia is an aggressor and “you must” condemn and vote as they tell you to vote, join the sanctions, not talk and not trade with Russia, and not buy anything from it or sell anything to it. In other words, we provide clarification and treat the mental abilities of our counterparties with respect since we believe that they are capable of drawing conclusions themselves, while the West does not show any such respect, and all it does is confront everyone with its demands. Clearly, this has nothing to do with democracy, but is a case of unadulterated diktat. Roughly speaking, the West doesn’t give a damn about the UN Charter principle of the sovereign equality of all states.

We learned from our talks today that our Mozambican friends are among the countries that determine their own position and listen to what others have to tell them, but make their own decisions and do not succumb to crude blackmail or ultimatums.

Question (retranslated from Portuguese): How do you envision the end of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, considering that Russians and Ukrainians are brothers?

Sergey Lavrov: As for the prospects of ending the conflict in Ukraine, we have already explained what goals we need to achieve. We cannot tolerate a regime that is actually being used to repeat Nazi Germany’s aggressions against our country, at our borders.

During World War II, Hitler united most European countries under his banner to conduct what he called Drang nach Osten (Drive to the East). In the current situation, the United States has also united most of Europe and compelled it to pay expenses on arming the Kiev regime for a war against the Russian Federation. President Vladimir Zelensky is being used as a symbol in this struggle. He is preaching overtly Nazi ideology and implementing Nazi practices in Ukraine, including the banners under which Hitler had thrown his own troops and the troops of other countries against the Soviet Union.

Those of you who devote much attention to Ukraine can look at the laws Ukraine has adopted in the past few years, including those banning education in Russian in all classes of all schools, as well as in Russian-speaking Ukrainian and Russian media. You can look at how they banned all cultural ties between our countries. Following the example of Nazi Germany, Ukraine is now throwing out thousands of books in Russian by Russian writers from its libraries and destroying them.

Kiev should not have such practices and many other things that are typical of its Nazi regime.

Question: You often talk about the split between the collective West and the Global Majority, the countries of the South, East and part of the North in your statements (and today, too). How does Africa see the West’s pressure you talked about?

Is a position of neutrality held by some African countries maintaining the status quo of dictate or is it gradually changing the international system in its own way?

Sergey Lavrov: We are seeing that the global majority is obviously tired of the harassment of the collective West, which is becoming increasingly rude and arrogant. The West demands that they take an unequivocal anti-Russia position and end mutually beneficial ties with our country. It does not offer anything positive in return but promises no punishment. This is the whole truth.

To stop this harassment and badgering, many countries agree to vote according to Western rules at international forums. In exchange, they decide for themselves not to support any sanctions. They continue practical cooperation with Russia in the course of which our partners and we are finding ways to protect our trade, economic and investment relations from illegal sanctions. In introducing these sanctions, the collective West has completely forgotten all the principles it used to build its globalisation model, which it promoted as the optimal course for the development of global economic ties.

By taking sanctions against Russia, China and other countries (Iran, Venezuela and a number of African states), the West wants to continue living at the expense of others as colonialists used to do and remove any strong rivals by indecent and dishonest methods. Africa does not want to return to colonial or neocolonial times. It wants to make use of its own natural resources. Africa wants not just to trade in raw materials that have been exported from here for centuries but it also wants to manufacture in-demand products with added value. We are willing to help our African friends in these efforts.

Today’s Africa is much more deeply aware of its identity. It is increasingly persistent in demanding an equitable place in the multi-polar world arrangement that is taking shape. Africa wants to be duly and fairly represented in the UN Security Council and the Russian Federation is supporting this bid.

Question: While we travel around this amazing continent, things are getting alarming at home. In light of the latest drone attack on Moscow and the repeated announcements of a Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian strongholds, what is your assessment of the danger of further supplies of increasingly long-range Western guns to Ukraine?

Sergey Lavrov: As for Vladimir Zelensky's terrorist activity, including the latest attacks on Russian cities, the Russian Foreign Ministry made a detailed official statement yesterday. I would rather not repeat it.

The West is supplying more and more long-range weapons to the Ukrainian regime while routinely reminding them that they do not encourage strikes against Russian territory, as if trying to absolve themselves. This is a lie. You know that one of the main puppeteers inciting the entire West to provide more open and serious support to Ukraine is London. UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly recently explained on television and social media that although the UK does not approve of strikes on Russian territory, the Ukrainian armed forces and government know better how they want to ensure their territorial integrity. If this is not direct incitement to what the terrorists from Kiev are doing, I do not know what is.

As for the consequences of this criminal policy, our armed forces are dealing with them. I am sure that they have all the answers.

Question: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba visited Mozambique last week. Following the talks, he said that the countries agreed to intensify cooperation. He also said that a Ukrainian embassy would soon open in Mozambique. How does Russia feel about such initiatives from Kiev? Did you discuss them during today's talks? If so, in what vein?

Sergey Lavrov: This is not a question for me. This question has to do with Mozambique-Ukraine relations.

We respect the right of any state to communicate with its colleagues from different parts of the world. Unlike the Americans, British, Europeans, Australians, and the Japanese running around the world telling everyone to stop dealing with Russians, we are well-mannered people. We would never behave as rudely as this. The question is entirely in the plane of Mozambique-Ukraine relations.