Ladies and gentlemen,
We had substantive and trust-based talks with my colleague and friend, Foreign Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt Sameh Shoukry.
Both of us expressed satisfaction with the current level of the traditionally friendly and close ties between our nations in all spheres. We welcome the successful development of our strategic partnership in keeping with the Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Strategic Cooperation, which President Vladimir Putin and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi signed in Sochi in 2018.
In August this year, we will mark 80 years of diplomatic relations between our countries. We have agreed to discuss the events that will be timed for this celebration. I am sure that our plans will arouse a keen interest of the citizens of the Russian Federation and the Arab Republic of Egypt.
We are satisfied with the positive dynamics of our trade and economic interaction. In 2022, trade between our countries rose above $6 billion, which is substantially above the 2021 figure. We have agreed to take the necessary measures to solidify and stabilise this positive trend. In this context, we highlighted the role of the Russian-Egyptian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation. Its next meeting is scheduled to take place in Cairo in the next few months.
We discussed the implementation of major joint investment projects, such as the construction of the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant and the establishment of the Russian Industrial Zone in Egypt. We talked about expanding cooperation in other areas, notably, in manufacturing and in the fuel and energy sector, as well as about organising additional regular deliveries of Russian grain to Egypt.
We emphasised the stable development of our military-technical cooperation. The Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation held a meeting in December 2022, where decisions were made to carry on our practical interaction in this sphere. In December 2022, we held the fifth Naval Bridge exercises of the Russian and Egyptian navies.
There has been considerable progress in our cultural and educational exchanges. We pointed out the successful completion of the Year of Humanitarian Cooperation held in 2021-2022.
We exchanged views on the current international and regional agendas and reaffirmed our resolve to continue working closely together at the UN and many other multilateral platforms.
We discussed our tasks in promoting an early settlement in Libya. In this context, I would like to highlight our Egyptian friends’ efforts to organise intra-Libyan talks, including in Egypt, aimed at creating a foundation for a comprehensive settlement of all issues in that country. We will continue to provide support to these plans.
We talked about the developments in and around Syria. We emphasised the importance of respecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic and the right of its citizens to choose their future by themselves. Russia has always believed that Arab countries should play a more active role in the national reconciliation in Syria and its post-conflict reconstruction, as well as its return to the Arab League.
We are seriously concerned about the negative dynamics in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Both sides have confirmed the need to relaunch Palestinian-Israeli talks as soon as possible in the interests of settling the main issues related to the final status and a comprehensive settlement based on the universally recognised legal framework. Russia has reaffirmed the need to relaunch the Middle East Quartet of international intermediaries – the United States, Russia, the UN and the EU. We recalled our years-long position that this group should work in close coordination with the Arab League. Regrettably, there has not been any progress on this track.
We discussed preparations for the second Russia-Africa summit, which is scheduled to take place in St Petersburg in late July. We agreed to coordinate our moves to ensure the maximum effectiveness of these preparations.
Responding to the request of our Egyptian friends, we provided detailed information about the events related to the special military operation in Ukraine. We recounted the years of sabotage of the Minsk agreements, which led to the current situation, and which were used by the Ukrainian authorities and the Western countries, which nurtured the Kiev regime, to prepare for a war with Russia. This has been openly admitted by those who signed the Minsk agreements, namely former President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko and former leaders of Germany and France Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande.
We are satisfied with the results of our talks. We have agreed to continue working together in all areas and to keep in touch. I am sure that this will benefit our ties and our friendship.
Question: Where is the point where the red lines run out and Moscow may use force to stop the influx of Western weapons to Ukraine?
Sergey Lavrov: We can see the West continue the discussion about pumping more serious weapons in Ukraine, including offensive weapons. Not only do we see it but we take measures to prevent further attempts to turn Ukraine into an even bigger security threat for us and to prevent the Kiev regime from prevailing in its policy of discrimination and eradication of the rights of all Ukrainian citizens (including former citizens) who felt a special affinity with Russian history, culture and customs.
Whatever our Western partners say, however they try to justify their supplies of weapons to Ukraine, including the notorious slogans such as weapon supplies pave the way to peace, everybody understands what is really going on very well. For quite a long time, NATO has been directly involved in the hybrid war against Russia, and this is reflected in the “hot dimensions” of the Kiev regime’s actions.
As I have already said, we do more than simply observe this process. The Russian Armed Forces and the commanders of the special military operation take all the necessary measures to ensure that the Western plans fail. And they will fail.
Question: President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes it is possible that Tehran may join the talks on normalising the relations between Ankara and Damascus in which Moscow is also currently involved. Is there any work underway to include Iran? When do the foreign ministers of Russia, Türkiye and Syria plan to meet in the format of the established trilateral contacts?
Sergey Lavrov: We support President Erdogan’s interest in normalising relations with President of Syria Bashar al-Assad and between the two neighbours in general. We are ready to take all necessary actions to make it happen.
We have reached agreement in principle on engaging Iran. Russia, Iran and Türkiye are members of the Astana troika format, which deals with the Syrian settlement. I believe that it is only logical for Russia and Iran to be involved in the further contacts pertaining to Türkiye-Syria relations.
As for the timeline, specific participation formats and levels (the military or diplomats), these matters are being discussed. We completely understand that it is necessary to move forward step by step, to make sure that each next phase brings specific results, even if small.
Question (retranslated from Arabic): What does Moscow think about Cairo’s position on the Ukrainian crisis against the backdrop of Western sanctions?
Sergey Lavrov: We hold a positive view of the position adopted by the Arab Republic of Egypt regarding the current developments around Ukraine, whose causes have a longstanding history. This is a balanced and responsible position, which has manifested itself, in particular, when Ukraine and everything related to this subject is discussed at the United Nations.
In his answer to the previous question, Foreign Minister of Egypt Sameh Shoukry said that he delivered a message from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Cairo recently. I confirm this fact.
We have been saying all along that Russia is ready to listen to any serious proposal, with an emphasis on the word ‘serious,’ aimed at bringing about a settlement to the current situation all things considered. In this context, the message delivered to us by Sameh Shoukry reaffirms that Russia “must stop and leave” and then “everything will be fine.”
The “everything will be fine” part was not in Antony Blinken’s message. However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg explained yesterday during his visit to the Republic of Korea where the interests of the United States and the West lie. In one of his appearances, he said that Russia “must lose” and “be defeated.” He went on to say that the West cannot let Ukraine lose since this would mean that the West and “the whole world” lose. He had the courage to speak on behalf not just of the three dozen NATO members, but also on behalf of all the other countries around the world, including Egypt and other Asian, African and Latin American countries. Jens Stoltenberg said that it is for this reason, I mean because they cannot allow Ukraine to lose as it would mean that the entire world suffers a defeat, that NATO would assume its global responsibility. Everything is quite clear in this regard. He was not talking about Ukraine. Not at all. The Kiev regime is not independent in any away and abides by the will of its sovereign, I mean the United States and the rest of the West, subjugated as it is by Washington and forced to follow its policies to achieve the main goal. It consists of preventing anything on the international stage that could challenge the aspirations of the United States to be a hegemon in today’s world.
I am grateful to my friend for delivering the message from the US Secretary of State. Since we have this question, let me tell you that the message was incomplete. I tried to fill in the blanks for Antony Blinken to show what the United States really wants when it calls on Russia to stop and leave Ukraine.
Question: There was an attack against Iranian military sites yesterday. Tension has been on the rise in the Middle East, which is attributable to the refusal to revive the nuclear deal. Do you believe that the region is sliding into a war? Who is behind this?
Sergey Lavrov: Regarding tensions around Iran, this is indeed a matter of concern for us. The Foreign Ministry has issued a statement to this effect. We believe that the West and primarily the parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear programme are committing a grave error by, among other things, openly seeking to dismantle this critical document, even though the UN Security Council approved it unanimously.
Contrary to all its commitments under the UN Charter, the United States withdrew from the deal and said that it was not bound by it in any way. At the same time, it demanded that Iran comply with its obligations. We hoped that our European colleagues, together with Russia and China, would somehow bring the US representatives back to their senses. Over all these years, we tried to do this and acted in good faith. It seemed that the goal was within our reach. However, at the last moment the West started to act as if it intended to revert to confrontation by abusing the powers of the IAEA Board of Governors and making other confrontational statements.
On January 29, 2022, the US Secretary of State said that they are considering military options for preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. If they want to make this goal their priority, stop trying to force an open door.
The Iranian spiritual leaders have long issued a fatwa banning the development of nuclear weapons. If anyone had any doubts about it, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action introduced the strictest and harshest inspection regime for the Iranian nuclear programme compared to similar frameworks that exist for any other country.
These actions by the West can only mean that they prefer to ignore UN Security Council resolutions, just as they did with the Minsk agreements on the Ukrainian settlement, and switch to aggressive actions, including by using military force. And all this instead of abiding by the resolutions of the UN’s primary body.
