Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks and answers to media questions at a joint news conference following talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations of the Kingdom of Lesotho Lesego Makgothi, Sochi, February 13, 2019

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to once again greet my colleague, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations of the Kingdom of Lesotho, Lesego Makgothi.

We have had very useful and constructive, and I would say, wide-ranging talks that have allowed us to understand how to continue to build upon relations in numerous areas that, for certain reasons, have not yet duly expanded. This agreement is of special importance because today we are hosting the first visit by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations of the Kingdom of Lesotho to Russia in history.

We noted the traditionally friendly nature of our ties that have developed under the principles of respect and consideration for each other’s interests. We noted a desire to expand these relations in all areas, beginning with the political dialogue and then including cooperation within international organisations, as well as in trade and economic, cultural and humanitarian areas. We noted geological prospecting, mining and the energy industry as promising areas. We agreed to continue supporting business contacts between our businesspeople. We hope that the Lesotho delegation will, among other things, be able to take part in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2019. We are expecting a specific list of projects fr om our friends; this implies projects that, in their opinion, can be jointly implemented.

We also focused on cooperation in education exchanges. Responding to a request fr om our friends in Lesotho, we expanded the quota for students from Lesotho by five times. This will make it possible to meet the interests of Lesotho and to train specialists in healthcare, meteorology and mining. This will start as soon as the next academic year. We also confirmed the possibility of sending law enforcement officers to study in advanced training courses at Russian Interior Ministry institutions, and also to earn degrees at universities in this area.

We discussed issues facing the international community, including issues being discussed most actively at the UN. Russia and Lesotho have a common position. We would like everyone to unfailingly honour international law, starting with the UN Charter, to respect the unique nature of nations and their desire to independently determine their own destiny as well as specific approaches and development alternatives.

We discussed UN Security Council reform and once again noted that there is no alternative to expanding the number of the UN Security Council members from among developing Asian, Latin American and certainly African countries. We believe that there is absolutely no alternative to this.

We are grateful to our partners for supporting Russian initiatives at the UN, including those aiming to combat the glorification of Nazism, proposals in international information security and efforts to prevent the deployment of weapons in outer space.

While discussing African issues, we reaffirmed our approach that the African countries themselves should address the crises and conflicts that, unfortunately, persist on the African continent. The international community is called on to provide any support to these African processes and peacekeeping missions. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia will continue to strictly abide by these principles.

We praise the integration processes that continue to develop in Africa, including the Southern African Development Community that aims to guarantee socio-economic growth in the southern part of the African continent. Last year, we signed several documents with the Southern African Development Community, including a memorandum of understanding between the Russian Government and this organisation on the fundamental principles of our relations and cooperation, and a memorandum of understanding as regards military-technical cooperation. We praise the involvement of the Southern African Development Community in drafting recommendations for Lesotho; such recommendations concern the implementation of reforms that, as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations Lesego Makgothi has confirmed today, will help ensure long-term public-political consensus in the country.

We discussed the recent session of the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Addis Ababa. The session’s participants elected the Kingdom of Lesotho to the African Union Commission’s Peace and Security Department. This important position will allow us to further expand cooperation on African issues.

In general, we advocated greater cooperation between Russia and the African countries in all areas, primarily in the context of a proposal by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin at the BRICS summit in Johannesburg in July 2018. He suggested holding the first ever Russia-Africa summit due to be held this autumn. More events like this summit are scheduled; and others have already been held. The Russia-Africa Public Forum was held in October 2018. An inter-parliamentary Russian-African conference is scheduled within the same format later this year. Russia will host a general meeting of the African Export-Import Bank’s shareholders. We believe that this will make it possible to considerably raise the level of cooperation and improve its quality and to chart specific ways of further enriching our traditionally very friendly relations with our African friends.

Question: The latest summit of the guarantor countries on Syria will open tomorrow. Is it possible to say that a joint decision on the need to liberate the city of Idlib is already in the offing?

Sergey Lavrov: Tomorrow’s trilateral Russia-Turkey-Iran summit on the Syrian settlement concerns the developments in the Idlib de-escalation zone as well as problems created there by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra). The agreement reached by the presidents of Russia and Turkey in September 2018 on the approach to resolving the Idlib zone problem was temporary. It was reaffirmed a couple of times at meetings of our leaders after last September.

The agreement boiled down to the need to separate the opposition interested in normal dialogue with the Government from the terrorists and thereby isolate them and continue to work toward their destruction because no agreements provide for the preservation of this terrorist nest on Syrian territory.

According to incoming information, some Western countries want exactly this and the participation of the enclave, in which Jabhat al-Nusra captured 90 percent of its territory, in some future political process. Obviously, any talks with terrorists are impossible. However, our Western colleagues have repeatedly resorted to double standards, so I do not rule out that this information is accurate.

Before the trilateral summit tomorrow, President of Russia Vladimir Putin will hold talks with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President of Iran Hassan Rouhani. Needless to say, the issue of the Idlib zone will be central at the meeting with Erdogan. Everyone understands that Jabhat al-Nusra must not be allowed to continue entrenching itself in this zone wh ere it has practically tripled the area of the territory under its control. Instead of separating the fighters of illegal armed formations from Jabhat al-Nusra, the reverse is happening.

We will do everything to help the Syrian Government and its armed forces to liberate their territory. We will also support the actions of the Syrian Army that should progress in keeping with the provisions of international humanitarian law. We will not allow what the Western coalition did in Raqqa. Everyone saw how Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta were freed. Hundreds of thousands of people have long returned to these cities. Meanwhile, corpses have not been taken away and mines have not been cleared in Raqqa, for one. We will not allow this to happen. The Syrian Government is absolutely opposed to such outcomes.

Question: What is preventing the Constitutional Committee on Syria from starting to work?

Sergey Lavrov: This issue will be discussed by all means. It has already been reviewed at today’s consultations of our experts on drafting agreements for the three presidents at tomorrow’s summit. We thought that the issue of establishing the Constitutional Committee was resolved in December. A Government-supported list was accepted by the opposition. The foreign ministers of Turkey, Iran and Russia sent this information to the then UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Syria Staffan de Mistura. Later on, it transpired that the list was not welcomed by all. It was opposed by some Western countries rather than some Syrian parties. And they started throwing spanners into the UN machinery to prevent its endorsement. By and large, the UN is a facilitator and a helpful mechanism whereas dialogue should be conducted by Syrians themselves. Such crude and unceremonious interference in the neocolonial spirit evokes serious concern. But we are not closing ourselves off and are willing to look for a way out of this situation. We understand that the UN should facilitate the Syrian dialogue. We have discussed these issues with the new UN envoy on Syria. My deputy recently met with him in Geneva.  We will continue this work. We will report to our leaders at what stage this work is and tomorrow they should make a decision on further advancing the inter-Syrian dialogue.

Let me repeat that nobody has ever worked on the practical issues involved in organising an inclusive dialogue among Syrians. Those that are trying to subvert these efforts will never succeed. They are motivated only by one goal – to prove that decision-making is their prerogative. This is egoistic and does not meet the interests of the international community in the Syrian settlement process and other issues. It is unacceptable to impose anything. What is needed is in an inclusive dialogue, be it in Syria, Venezuela or somewhere else.

Question: Can you comment on Moscow’s position on Damascus’s note to the UN Secretary-General with the demand to denounce the actions of the US-led international coalition, in part, the air attack on Deir ez-Zor, during which civilians were affected?

Sergey Lavrov: Damascus urged the Security Council to release a statement on this event. This has happened more than once. The coalition regularly hits the wrong targets, affecting civilians and infrastructure. This is no longer a new trend. Let me recall that during the bombing of Yugoslavia a vast number of civilian facilities were subjected to attacks – on purpose, including a bridge with a passenger train on it and the TV Centre in Belgrade. Nothing has changed in international humanitarian law since then; it prohibits using facilities like this as targets. We will support Syria in the UN Security Council. We will do this for any country that will suffer lawlessness that is perpetrated by uninvited foreign armed forces.

Question: The INF Treaty was not mentioned in yesterday’s Foreign Ministry release for the media on your conversation with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. Wasn’t it mentioned at all?

Sergey Lavrov: Indeed, this issue was not mentioned during my conversation with Michael Pompeo. We gave a press release in which we listed the issues we discussed by telephone. Several days ago President Vladimir Putin made a clear statement on the INF Treaty and other issues related to strategic stability and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. He reviewed the initiatives that have remained unanswered by the US and its Western allies. The President said that they “remain on the table” but instructed Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and me to no longer remind anyone about them. Everyone is aware of these initiatives.  When our colleagues are ready, we will be willing to conduct a professional, to the point and non-politicised conversation. Michael Pompeo did not talk about this issue yesterday, so the Americans are not ready yet.

Question: The Financial Times wrote recently that the US and the EU have almost coordinated anti-Russia sanctions related to the incident in the Kerch Strait. In part, this issue will be put on the agenda of the EU Council of Ministers meeting on Monday (February 18). What is our attitude to this?

Sergey Lavrov: We said a long time ago that we won’t discuss the sanctions with anyone. We want to develop our economy and trade with normal foreign partners so as not to depend on anyone’s whims. In this case – on the whims of those who have failed to honour their word, allowed a coup in Kiev and did not compel the opposition to fulfill their agreements with President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. We are dealing with people who introduced sanctions in response to the declaration of will by Crimeans and in general to all events that are taking place in this area, including in eastern Ukraine. I think this is yet another occasion wh ere the Europeans have to admit their complete inability to make President of Ukraine Poroshenko abide by the Minsk agreements. Something has to be done since they are unable to direct their “clients.” So they decided to adopt another package of sanctions. We know these sanctions are taken under heavy US pressure, which is further evidence of the EU’s lack of independence. This is sad…

We are open to dialogue but will proceed from the premise that we should not be dependent on people that act like this, including actions with regard to the commitments on settling the Ukrainian crisis that they assumed in February 2014.