Lavrov worked at top speed for three working days in the capital of Laos
Photo: REUTERS.
The West now needs simple images without delving into the essence of the problem rather than high-quality diplomacy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this in Vientiane, responding to a request from a special correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda to comment on the latest efforts of Western diplomats led by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
During three working days in the Lao capital, Lavrov worked at top speed. He took part in the meeting of foreign ministers of Russia and ASEAN, the meeting of foreign ministers of the countries participating in the East Asia Summit (EAS) and the ministerial session of the ASEAN Regional Security Forum. He also held nine bilateral meetings and one trilateral meeting: Russia-China-Laos.
Everything went on as usual, but beneath the scenes there was still a fly in the ointment of Western negotiators in Laos.
Before the start of the meeting in BAC format, a “family photo” was planned, in which all the ministers would go to journalists for a photo shoot. But the representatives of the West (and primarily US Secretary of State Antony Blinken) struck a pose. They refused to be photographed with Lavrov.
I asked our minister to comment on his behavior.
– I don’t know, maybe some people are afraid of their photogenicity. Strictly speaking, I attach little importance to these protocol aspects. The West, which has abandoned diplomacy, now needs images to back up its claims of being in charge of everything and everyone.
Sergey Lavrov recalled how the West and the Ukrainians persuaded representatives of many countries to send at least some representatives to the “peace conference” on Ukraine in Switzerland. In response to the doubts expressed by the states of the global South about the effectiveness of such meetings without Russia, they were told: you will not sign anything there, just come and take a “family” photo.
– That’s all. This once again proves that the West needs a simple image without going into the essence of the matter to promote its narrative. “Personally, I was not upset that the photo session did not take place,” the head of Russian diplomacy added.
At a meeting with Lao Prime Minister Sergei Lavrov was sitting directly opposite Antony Blinken. Photo: Press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry
However, Blinken could not avoid contact with Lavrov in Laos. On Saturday, at a meeting of all heads of delegations with Laotian Prime Minister Sonexai Siphandon, it was obviously no coincidence that the hosts sat Lavrov and Blinken exactly opposite each other. There were five meters between them. But the diplomats from Russia and the United States had enough time to look into each other’s eyes…
Lavrov was also asked how Moscow plans to respond to a statement by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who believes that Russia should take the West at its word. In essence, he demanded that the Russian leadership complete the SVO as soon as possible. In return, Scholz does not even make any promises, but only offers to promise not to deploy long-range US missiles in Germany.
But Berlin clearly has no intention of offering any guarantees to Moscow, especially in writing. According to the Chancellor, it is enough to give Russia one more word. As if the “honest words” of the West were worth anything!
– Mr Scholz is known for his, I would say, naive statements. “He is famous for his simple ideas,” Lavrov stressed. The SVO was not started at all because of American missiles. At the same time, the minister noted that Scholz, in expressing his proposal, actually admitted that it is not he, but Washington, that makes decisions on the deployment of certain weapons on German territory. Is this what the leader of an independent state does?
– As for the medium- and short-range missiles that are now planned to be delivered to Germany, no one asked Scholz whether the Germans want such a deployment or not. He, again, innocently, when this news appeared, said: “I welcome the decision of the United States to deploy appropriate missiles in Germany. This is a good decision.” That is, he did not hide that the decision was American,” Lavrov explained.
The minister also said that he does not hear kyiv’s statements about its readiness to negotiate with the Russian side, as Dmitry Kuleba is not talking about this for the first time, but is also saying exactly the opposite. “They recently talked about negotiations, Zelensky mentioned his readiness to sit at the table with Russian representatives. To be honest, I don’t hear them.”
The day before, Lavrov met in Vientiane with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who had spoken with Kuleba the day before. “Wang Yi told us how his talks with Kuleba went. We feel that the Chinese position remains unchanged. The Chinese position, I repeat, is to focus on the root causes of the Ukrainian conflict,” the minister told reporters.
Read more: Tense talks on Ukraine: Wang Yi spoke with Kuleba for three hours, addressed Lavrov (more details)
