Russian Foreign Minister Offers Support in Visit to Venezuela

Russia and Venezuela conducted a review of a considerable number of their bilateral agreements, which encompassed a range of areas including financial, energy, agricultural, and other sectors. These deliberations took place on Tuesday and involved the participation of top diplomatic figures and other high-ranking officials.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Venezuelan counterpart Yván Gil convened a collaborative press conference in Caracas shortly after Lavrov's arrival in the country, as part of a four-nation tour of Latin America.

The two individuals pledged to maintain unwavering assistance towards each other's respective nations and censured the economic sanctions that have been imposed by the United States.

“We fully support the position of our Venezuelan friends,” Lavrov said. “It is their country ... and we are going to support it in any way so that the Venezuelan economy becomes an independent economy from the pressures of the United States and other western actors.”

At the press conference, Lavrov emphasized the commitment of their respective governments to amplify the scale and frequency of their trade relations in the coming years, leveraging the pre-existing channels facilitated by the High Level Intergovernmental Commission (CIAN). Such a move reflects a deepening of bilateral ties between nations and a concerted effort to bolster economic cooperation.

In this regard, the Russian Foreign Minister specified that, "without any doubt", Venezuela is one of "Russia's most reliable" partners, adding: "we are united by friendly relations and also by the similarities in our positions, the ties of friendship and sympathy between our peoples. Our relations have gone through several tests; through several crises, pressure, but our ties, in spite of everything, will continue to develop".

The initiative allowing Venezuelan students to pursue academic pursuits in Russia was recently discussed by Lavrov, who proclaimed a bolstered allocation of 200 participants for the forthcoming year. Further, the Russian Center of Science and Culture shall recommence its operations.

Gil and Lavrov, both anticipated to convene with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, have expressed their nations' intent to establish a substitute for SWIFT, a platform that facilitates international financial transactions, but which several principal Russian banks suffered exclusion from in the past year.

The institutions were severed from global financial networks consequent of the economic restrictions imposed on Russia at the onset of hostilities in Ukraine last year.

Russia, along with China, is an unconditional ally of the Venezuelan government. Its support has allowed it to circumvent crippling economic sanctions meant to oust Maduro.