Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at a meeting with Foreign Minister of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Jorge Arreaza, Moscow, June 24, 2020

Mr Minister, my dear friend,

We appreciate enormously your attendance at today’s event, the military parade dedicated to the 75^th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

Venezuela is our reliable friend both in Latin America and internationally. We highly appreciate the strategic partnership that is developing based on the agreements between President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro. These agreements form the basis, on which our bilateral relations are advancing in such fields as energy, industry, agriculture, high technologies, pharmaceuticals, and military-technical cooperation.    

As for developments around Venezuela, we see that your country is one of the states that form the bulwark of opposition to attempts to plunge the region back into the 19^th century and reimpose the Monroe Doctrine on it. We are displaying an invariable solidarity with your resolve to resist outside diktat and any attempts to rudely interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign country and provoke a forceful regime change.

We support President Nicolas Maduro and his government’s policy to promote national dialogue with the opposition. We welcome the recent anti-COVID-19 cooperation agreements with opposition representatives that were reached with the help of the Pan American Health Organisation.    

When I enjoyed your hospitality during my visit to Caracas in February of this year, I was highly impressed by a meeting involving some opposition figures, which was held as part of the National Dialogue Roundtable. It was clear that the Venezuelans were tired of the artificially imposed standoff and confrontation and were willing to find a national consensus as soon as possible, as suggested by President Nicolas Maduro.

It will be of interest for us to hear your appraisals of the situation. We will take advantage of our meeting to continue the implementation of the agreements lying at the base of our partnership.

We are truly delighted to see you here in Moscow.