Lavrov comments on talks with US on Ukraine conflict: As it happened
The 12-hour negotiations in Saudi Arabia focused on maritime security in the Black Sea
23:24 GMT
During the interview, Lavrov invoked the topic of Greenland drawing parallels between Trump’s repeatedly proclaimed desire to annex the Danish-controlled island and the Ukrainian crisis.
“[Trump] said that the US desperately needs Greenland for security. We talked about this with the Americans… Such comparisons are very important for them, that for the legitimate security interests of Russia, Ukraine is several orders of magnitude more important than Greenland is for ensuring US security. They understand this,” Lavrov suggested.
23:14 GMT
The state of Russia-US ties under the Biden administration was an “anomaly,” and now they are returning to “normalcy,” Lavrov said.
“We do not have any illusions… But we have a consensus that Trump’s team wants to make these relations mutually beneficial where possible, mutually respectful where we disagree, and not allow the disagreements between the two largest nuclear powers to escalate into a confrontation,” Lavrov said.
23:05 GMT
Lavrov reiterated his view that the Kiev regime is not only untrustworthy but is now acting with open malice. He recalled how Kiev publicly agreed to a 30-day ceasefire following the March 11 meeting with US officials in Jeddah, yet on the very same day launched a record 340 drone attacks on central Russia, including Moscow, targeting civilian infrastructure.
Lavrov also criticized an attempt by “some active folks in Washington” to push shuttle diplomacy between Kiev and Moscow and to prematurely produce a joint statement at the recent meeting in Saudi Arabia.
“We have an absolutely unequivocal understanding that the presidents [Putin and Trump] agreed to proceed in a reliable manner, without signing unsubstantiated documents anymore. And even those that are accepted with certain ‘guarantees’ – our American colleagues must take responsibility for ensuring their implementation and for the Kiev regime’s compliance,” Lavrov said.
“Europe is seeking to ‘undermine’ the role of the United States in resolving the Ukrainian crisis and has no interest in addressing it based on the elimination of its root causes. I’ve named them: NATO, the extermination of the rights of the Russian population and everything connected with Russia, legally and physically,” he added.
23:00 GMT
Globalisation processes have largely ended up destroyed, including due to the actions of the former US administration, which effectively kickstarted dedollarisation Lavrov said.
“Donald Trump, even before he became the US president, after the elections, said that Joe Biden made a colossal mistake, if not a crime, when he began to use the dollar to ‘punish’ certain countries. As a result, not only those whom he tried to punish, depriving them of the opportunity to use it, but also others began to take a closer look,” the top diplomat stated.
22:41 GMT
Kiev’s European backers, such as Britain and France, are not only contradicting the Trump administration’s view on resolving the conflict but are also actively encouraging Vladimir Zelensky with their constant calls for the urgent deployment of so-called “peacekeeping forces” to “secure” parts of the country still under Kiev’s control, Lavrov said.
“When the ‘remainder’ of Ukraine, if it truly persists in any form, is taken under the control of NATO countries’ security forces (no matter under what flag), no one says they will then strengthen democracy in the remaining territory. No one says they will repeal the racist, Russophobic laws that exterminate everything Russian. No one talks about that…. And if that’s the case, it means these security forces will perpetuate the Nazi regime that banned anything even remotely connected to the Russian roots of this country,” Lavrov said.
22:33 GMT
The Ukraine conflict was blown out of proportion by the former US administration, which had been displaying “kindergarten”-style behavior and severed any contacts with Russia, Lavrov suggested.
“Joe Biden artificially brought the Ukrainian issue to the very top of the international agenda. Many of my friends told me that this issue did not deserve it, that there was too much of a hypertrophic reaction to our special military operation, which began 10 years after we started warning that the situation [in Ukraine] would lead to no good,” he said.
https://www.rt.com/russia/614729-lavrov-comments-talks-us/