Dear ladies and gentlemen,
We have had informative and useful talks with the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of Namibia, Mr. P. Mushelenga. This is the first visit of Mr. Minister to our country in his new capacity. Before that he had visited Russia holding other positions in the Namibian government.
We noted that bilateral ties dating back to the period of uncompromising struggle of the Namibian people for self-determination are progressively developing. They are based on friendship and mutual sympathy between our peoples. In March 2025, we will celebrate the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. They were established on the same day with the proclamation of independence of this African state.
We are pleased with the political dialog between our countries. It is regular and is expanding into new areas. We welcomed the intensification of contacts between the parliaments and parties of the two countries, the intensification of exchanges between ministries and agencies, including the foreign ministries on the basis of the long-standing and well-functioning plan of consultations.
Unfortunately, bilateral trade turnover is still very modest. Today, we have shown mutual interest in the growth of mutual trade and implementation of investment projects. This will be facilitated by the active work of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. My colleague is its co-chairman on the Namibian side, and on the Russian side – Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Yuri Trutnev. On March 27 this year, the 10th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission will be held in Moscow. We expect new important decisions from it.
Among the most promising areas of cooperation were geological exploration, extraction and processing of mineral resources (including uranium and diamonds), energy, agro-industry, fishing, health care, personnel training, culture, tourism and sports. There are many promising areas in which we can increase our cooperation. They also agreed to intensify joint work on finalizing a number of draft intergovernmental and interdepartmental documents.
We exchanged views on topical issues of world politics. Our positions coincide on all key issues of the world order. Russia, like Namibia, supports the democratization of international relations and their building on the basis of the norms and principles of the Charter of the United Nations in their entirety and interrelation, without attempts to interpret the Charter “ad hoc”, as our Western “colleagues” wish. Such actions are very typical for them.
They discussed the need to reform the UN and its Security Council. For our part, we reaffirmed our unchanging position that the legitimate interests of the countries of the African continent should be fully taken into account in these processes.
We are grateful to Namibia for its solidarity with a number of Russian initiatives in the world organization, including the resolution on combating the glorification of Nazism, on space and disarmament issues, and on cyber security. We provide mutual support to the candidates of our countries during elections to various UN bodies.
We paid much attention to regional issues. First of all, we focused on the situation in the Southern African Development Community with emphasis on the situation in the “hot spots” in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Mozambique. They expressed their appreciation and commended the proactive and useful role played by Namibia in these efforts.
Russia attaches great importance to strengthening the sovereignty of African countries. We reaffirmed our position on the need for all to respect the principle of “African problems – African solutions”. The international community should provide Africans with all possible assistance, including in preparing and equipping peacekeeping operations and financing projects. That position has been reaffirmed once again today. The African Union, the Southern African Development Community and other subregional organizations on the continent have an important role to play in establishing such an approach.
We recognized a mutual focus on intensifying cooperation between Russia and the Southern African Development Community. We have a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Community on the foundations of relations and cooperation.
We discussed the prospects of expanding cooperation within the framework of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum. Namibia participated in both the first Russia-Africa Summit in 2019 and the second one in 2023 in St. Petersburg. Following the decision of the St. Petersburg summit, a Russia-Africa meeting at the level of foreign ministers will be held in Russia in November this year. We trust that our Namibian friends will accept our invitation.
I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize once again that we view the strengthening of cooperation with Africa and the Southern African Development Community through the prism of strengthening the foundations of the emerging polycentric world order. We are doing and will intensify similar work with regard to other regional and subregional civilizational centers of the Global South and East, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
The sides exchanged views on the situation in the Middle East in the context of the sharp escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as well as massive, unjustified and illegal strikes by the “international coalition” led by the United States and Great Britain on the territory of Yemen.
We touched on the situation in and around Ukraine. We have conveyed to our colleagues the Russian Federation’s current vision of the situation developing in the course of the special military operation to resolve the conflict provoked by the “collective West” (no one has any doubts about this any more) in order to contain our country. We are grateful to our Namibian friends for their balanced position on this issue. They invariably take it in the UN when discussing relevant issues.
We are convinced that our friends understand the essence of the plans behind the initiative to hold a “peace summit”. As an ultimatum, the West seeks to “put” the unpromising “peace formula” of V.A. Zelensky as their basis. It will lead to nothing. This understanding is shown by the overwhelming majority of States invited by the West and Kyiv to such “sit-downs”.
I believe that the negotiations were useful. I express my gratitude to my colleague.
Question: Does Russia plan to involve the specialized institutions of the United Nations and other international organizations on the issue of counter-terrorism after the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall on 22 March this year?
S. V. Lavrov: I would like to draw attention to the following circumstances.
We have already launched our own fairly effective and prompt investigation, which every day brings new facts. They will be summarized by the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor General’s Office and other competent bodies of the Russian Federation.
It is interesting that just a day after the terrorist attack, when statements were made in the West that of course it was not Ukraine but the Islamic State, at the same time the Interpol leadership suddenly announced that they would be ready to assist in the investigation.
I do not recall such an initiative from Interpol in previous cases, which also require the closest international attention. The most obvious example is the Nord Streams. No one volunteered to help us investigate. Moreover, the countries through whose waters the two “strings” of the Nord Streams passed (Sweden, Denmark and Germany) said that they would take care of it themselves. We appealed several times to the UN Security Council to adopt a completely depoliticized resolution that would call for a transparent international investigation. We received a categorical refusal. When we raised the question that, based on the results of such an investigation, all those responsible should be given the punishment they deserve, this particular phrase was blocked directly by the Americans and the British.
On the one hand, I am sure that we will cope with this investigation. On the other hand, we will hardly need such assistance, which will clearly be a manifestation of double standards and will most likely be aimed at promoting a theory convenient for the West that the Islamic State did it and Ukraine had “nothing to do with it”. We can handle it ourselves. We have long been accustomed to the double standards of our Western friends. From now on, we will act solely on the basis of our full understanding of what the West is trying to achieve and by what methods.
