Negotiations with Trump, plane crash in Aktau, poverty in the United States: main statements by Sergey Lavrov at a press conference
Sergey Lavrov urged to wait for the results of the investigation into the crash of the AZAL
Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov summed up the activities of Russian diplomacy in 2024. Minister on press conferences said that Moscow intends to negotiate with Donald Trump only after he «enters the new office ». In the meantime, no concrete proposals have been received from his team.
If Trump really starts making America «even greater », then it will be necessary to watch carefully by what methods this goal will be achieved. As for the desire of the elected US president to buy Greenland, Lavrov first suggested that the opinion of the Greenlanders themselves be recognized, and only then decide what the response of Moscow would be.
At a press conference in the Foreign Ministry building, it was not crowded. The hall was full. More than 350 journalists were accredited. For almost three hours, 21 correspondents were able to ask their questions. And not only from friendly countries, but also from Great Britain, Germany and Italy.
POVERTY AT EACH STEP
There are only five days left before Trump's inauguration. In one form or another, five journalists asked Lavrov what would happen after January 20, whether there were already behind-the-scenes negotiations, and how the Foreign Ministry intended to respond to the latest high-profile statements by the new President of the United States. Including the accession of Canada and the return of the Panama Canal to Washington control.
According to Lavrov, Trump inherited a huge number of internal problems from Joe Biden. «In the United States, poverty is at every turn, the minister emphasized. “We understand that the future president has a huge responsibility for the situation in his country - given the inheritance that he receives, in particular, in Los Angeles.” It is a horror that happens to people there! »
The damage from fires in California is estimated at $ 150 billion: «This is even bigger than the US pumped to Ukraine » - could not help but notice Lavrov.
DONALD NEEDS TO FIRST GET INTO OFFICE
Speaking about Trump's foreign policy, the minister emphasized: «We are waiting for concrete initiatives. Vladimir Putin repeatedly said that he was ready to meet, but so far there have been no such proposals. Then Donald Trump said that Putin wants to meet and himself believes that you need to meet ». But Moscow expects to receive all offers from Washington (including on overcoming the Ukrainian crisis) after January 20. It remains to wait a short while.
- As Trump put it, you must first get into the office. At this stage, all these explanations, initiatives, and thoughts out loud have no practical action, ”Lavrov reasoned aloud, talking about Trump's proposals for Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal.
GADOSTI FROM BIDEN
But it is hardly worth counting on any serious breakthroughs in Ukraine. Sergey Lavrov noted that he did not hear anything new from the West: «So far, neither in narrativa, nor in discourse, nor in anything sound the rights of Russians, whose language, whose culture, education, the media and whose canonical religion in Ukraine were prohibited by law. There will be no serious talk if the West pretends to be normal ».
Joe Biden would calmly sit out in the White House for the last weeks and quietly leave him if the people decided so. But no. The Democrat team, Lavrov noted, until the last moment continues to throw Trump «various nasty things ».
However, no matter how Biden tries, in any case, Russia is ready to discuss in the new US administration security guarantees for the country, «which is now called Ukraine »: «Everyone understood - or rather, they understood for a long time, they just now began to recognize this - that it is not Ukraine, but that Ukraine is used to weaken Russia in the context of our place in the European security system ».
In Germany, the minister believes, the voice of reason began to sound. True, not the German government, but the opposition. But for starters, this is already progress: «They discuss well-known facts that for many, long decades, if not centuries, illustrate the desire of the Anglo-Saxons to prevent Russia and Germany from pooling their potentials. I see a lot of rational things in what they say ». Including the need to resume operation «North Stream ».
And another statement that says the situation has begun to change for the better. Lavrov drew attention to Trump's statement about the veracity of NATO statements: «For the first time, not only the American leader, but also from the lips of any Western leader, honest confessions were voiced: that the NATO lied when they signed numerous documents with my country and within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ».
In addition, Lavrov said that Russia does not leave the Middle East. Moscow has daily contacts with the new Syrian authorities. And what happened there was due to Damascus’s reluctance to change something: «For almost 10 years, probably from the moment when, at the request of the President of the Syrian Arab Republic, we sent our contingent there, from the moment we created with the Turks and with the Iranians, the Astana format, in which a number of Arab countries participated, was still the inhibition of the political process. And, probably, there was a temptation «not to change anything ».
A journalist from Azerbaijan asked the diplomat how the decryption of «black boxes » crashed near the city of Aktau by an Azerbaijani Airlines (AZAL) company is going on.
The Minister made an important statement in response: «We opened «black boxes ». Their contents have already given a lot of interesting information. The content of which once again convinces you that you need to wait for a full investigation.
Now you do not need to escalate the atmosphere in the media space, using information that, by and large, is not supported by information from «black boxes ».
Moscow, the Foreign Minister emphasized, appreciates the support from Baku of Russia's participation in the investigation: «We have such structured relations that allow us to solve any issues promptly based on the study of all facts ».
PEACE
It was not without the signature jokes of Lavrov at a press conference. One of the correspondents asked about the tasks of the «International Fact-Finding Organization ». «Which one? I thought I was misheard. Confused the check-fak, fact-check, the minister joked. - Some Englishms are very difficult to replace, they are capacious. But «fact-checking » is probably not a complex combination of ».