Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov considers as the most important outcome of Latin America’s tour of the Russian delegation led by President Dmitry Medvedev “a clear-cut and graphical confirmation of mutual interests to develop relations in all spheres.”
In his view, these interests primarily concern trade and economic cooperation, particularly investment cooperation, as well as military-technical, humanitarian, cultural and education cooperation. “We are building up on a pragmatic, commercial and market basis our cooperation with those countries, which President Dmitry Medvedev visited. But certainly with some benefits, which are granted in relations between any two friendly countries,” Lavrov said in an interview published in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper on Monday.
Latin America’s interest in Russia, though the countries of the foresaid region have earlier orientated only towards the cooperation with the United States, the Russian foreign minister explains with a multi-polar system taking shape and emerging new economic growth centers. “Economic growth brings about economic and political influence. New opportunities open up, particularly in the trade and the investment sphere, in a bigger number of countries, than it was before. The Latin American states are seeking to take advantage of these opportunities,” the Russian minister believes. “They are also willing to see political problems in the modern world solved under the principles of international law. We agree with them in this issue,” Lavrov said.
The Latin American states “are also willing to play the central role in the United Nations Organisation and are seeking for a lower external interference in conflict situations inside their region.
The Latin American states should decide themselves on how to build relations with their neighbors,” Lavrov said.
This approach to conflict settlement “is laid down in our proposal on a pan-European security treaty. We believe that these are the major reasons, why Latin American countries begin looking for partners not only in the North, but also in the East and the West, including Russia,” the Russian foreign minister said.
