Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at a wreath-laying ceremony on Diplomats’ Day, Moscow, February 8, 2019
8 February 2019 - 11:44
Friends,
Every year when we celebrate our professional holiday, Diplomat’s Day, we express gratitude to our veterans who are still with us and commemorate those members of the ministry who lost their lives fighting for the freedom and independence of our homeland during the Great Patriotic War and in line of duty, as well as those who perished during persecution campaigns.
On this day we traditionally pay homage to our great predecessors who were laid to rest in Russia and abroad. It is one of our main traditions, which all our missions outside Russia scrupulously observe in order to maintain continuity and preserve the dignity of our efforts.
Everyone knows about the complicated situation in the world and the difficult conditions in which all of us are working now. I would like to say, though, that the overwhelming majority of our diplomats are doing this commendably, keeping up or at least doing their best to keep up the high standards set by the previous generations.
We will continue to do everything in our power to implement Russia’s foreign policy, which was formulated by President Vladimir Putin and which is viewed positively in most countries despite the attempts to discredit Russia for the sake of discrediting. We can feel this.
I would like to once again thank our veterans who continue to share their invaluable experience with our young diplomats. Best greetings on Diplomats’ Day! I hope it will be a joyful and memorable day for all of you and for your families and loved ones.
Best regards on our professional day.
The source of information -
http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/...ent/id/3505371
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during a meeting with Foreign Minister of Thailand Don Pramudwinai, Moscow, February 8, 2019
8 February 2019 - 12:07
Mr Pramudwinai,
Friends,
Welcome to Moscow. We very much value our friendship with Thailand, our longtime partner in Southeast Asia. We enjoy a comprehensive political dialogue at all levels, as well as cooperation in security, trade, investments and culture. We are ready to continue this interaction. Today we will discuss these issues in detail, as well as our interaction in international affairs, including the developments in the Asia-Pacific region. It is especially useful given Thailand’s presidency in ASEAN this year.
Once again, welcome.
I am happy to see you all.
The source of information -
http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/...ent/id/3505457
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks at a joint news conference following talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand Don Pramudwinai, Moscow, February 8, 2019
8 February 2019 - 14:36
Ladies and gentlemen,
The talks with my colleague from Thailand, Don Pramudwinai, were held in a traditionally friendly atmosphere and were very substantial.
Thailand is Russia’s longtime partner. Our relations are based on the values of friendship, mutual respect and consideration for each other’s interests.
We discussed the state of bilateral cooperation and prospects for its further development, with due account for the agreements reached at meetings between President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha during the September 2017 BRICS summit in Xiamen, China, and also on the sidelines of the 13th East Asia Summit in Singapore last November.
We were satisfied to note the positive dynamics of bilateral trade and economic ties. We praised the launching of practical co-production arrangements in the power industry, the transport and agro-industrial sectors.
We agreed to continue implementing the top-level decision to increase bilateral trade to $10 billion. The Joint Russian-Thai Commission for Bilateral Cooperation has a major role to play in these efforts. My colleague, Don Pramudwinai, co-chairs the Thai section of the Commission, and Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov chairs its Russian section. We will vigorously facilitate the implementation of agreements reached at this commission’s seventh meeting in Bangkok in December 2018 aimed at promoting joint mutually beneficial projects. We will continue to help expand direct contacts between our countries’ business communities.
The meeting between the Foreign Minister of Thailand Don Pramudwinai and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov will take place later in the day. They will map out more specific actions on implementing the agreements reached by the Intergovernmental Commission.
Today, we reaffirmed our desire to improve the contractual foundation of our relations, deepen cooperation in countering new threats and challenges and developing military and military-technical cooperation.
We highly value our cultural, humanitarian, youth and tourist exchanges. Last year 1.5 million Russian citizens visited Thailand. We are grateful to the Thai authorities for meeting our request to open a Russian consulate-general in Phuket in order to facilitate these tourist flows and to assist our tourists.
We emphasised our mutual interest in continuing the practice of educating Thai students at Russian universities; there are now 350 students. We appreciate the interest of the Thai leaders in promoting the Russian language in their country. The centre of the Russian World Foundation has been operating in Thailand for seven years, and the Russian language is taught in many education institutions. Today, we offered our colleagues assistance in training and upgrading the skills of Russian language teachers.
We discussed major issues on the world and regional agendas. We maintain a constructive dialogue in the UN and agreed to continue this. We are grateful to Thailand for voting in favour of many Russian initiatives, including the resolution on the unacceptability of glorifying Nazism, building up trust in outer space, preventing the deployment of weapons in space, and promoting international information security, to name a few. We note that Thailand is not associated with some provocative anti-Russia initiatives that are sometimes put forth in the UN.
We spoke about our continued cooperation at the platforms in the Asia-Pacific Region. The plan of consultations for 2019-2021, signed by our foreign ministries today, will play a big role in this work.
We are also interested in ensuring the sustainable development of the Asia-Pacific Region. To achieve this, it is necessary to continue enhancing regional stability, and form a comprehensive and reliable system of equal and indivisible security that will rely on international law, the principles of peaceful settlement of disputes and the non-use of force.
We support the reliance of this system on the initiatives made by many decades by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including the promising East Asian summits. Along with Thailand and other participants in this format, we want the dialogue on security to continue and to produce a common understanding of the principles of building security in this region.
Thailand chairs ASEAN in 2019. In this context, we confirmed our interest in continuing the practical dialogue on enhancing strategic partnership between Russia and the ten ASEAN countries based on the relevant joint statement signed by our leaders last November.
We favour closer cooperation between ASEAN, the EAEU and the SCO. Last year, the Eurasian Economic Commission (EAEC) signed memorandums of understanding with the Government of Thailand and ASEAN. I think this is a good beginning. We will continue working in this area and moving to join the mechanisms operating in Southeast Asia in the interests of promoting interconnection and creating transport and production chains. All these initiatives naturally fit in into President Vladimir Putin’s initiative on establishing a Greater Eurasian Partnership.
We are pleased with the results of our talks. I think this feeling is mutual. I would like to thank my colleague for this close cooperation, and I will now give the floor to him.
The source of information -
http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/...ent/id/3508402
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s greetings at a gala meeting on Diplomats’ Day, Moscow, February 8, 2019
8 February 2019 - 17:43
Colleagues,
Allow me to declare this gala meeting on Diplomats’ Day open.
(The anthem of the Russian Federation is played)
* * *
Colleagues,
Every year when we gather in this hall we recall the veterans and other our comrades that have passed away in the last 12 months. This past year was no exception. Let us honour their memory with a minute of silence.
* * *
Colleagues and friends,
I am pleased to see many familiar faces in this hall – our veterans and colleagues from the Presidential Executive Office, the Government Executive Office, the Security Council, the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, ministries and departments. We are sincerely grateful to you for your support and cooperation, and for a professional solidarity that helps us successfully fulfil the responsible instructions of the country’s leaders.
First of all, I would like to read a message of greetings from President of Russia Vladimir Putin.
Message of greetings by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin
Staff and veterans of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Dear friends,
Please accept my sincere congratulations on the occasion of your professional day, Diplomats’ Day.
The foreign policy service of our country is proud of its rich history and glorious traditions, as it should be. Russian diplomats of many generations have served the Motherland with honour and have remained faithful to their professional duty.
Today, our diplomacy is making a significant contribution to strengthening peace, resolving important regional and global issues, and promoting cooperation with our foreign partners.
In today’s challenging circumstances, when international security and the rule of law are subjected to serious tests, you, the diplomats, face important and major tasks. In particular, it is imperative to enthusiastically uphold the basic principles of international law and the universal role of the UN and to strive to rally the international community in fighting the terrorist threat. Maintaining strategic stability needs much attention, especially now that the arms control and non-proliferation regime has been challenged.
Much remains to be done to further advance the peace process in Syria, as well as to find solution to other crises by political and diplomatic means.
Of course, efforts should be stepped up to promote Eurasian integration processes and to expand the external relations of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) with an eye to forming Greater Eurasian Partnership.
I am confident that the staff of the Foreign Ministry’s central office and overseas missions will continue to work proactively, with full dedication and creativity in the interest of ensuring Russia’s dynamic development and further strengthening of its standing and influence on the international stage.
I sincerely wish you every success in your work. I wish good health and all the best to our esteemed veterans who have dedicated their lives to serving the Fatherland in the diplomatic field.
VLADIMIR PUTIN
* * *
We have also received several other greetings. In his message, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev noted the contribution of domestic diplomacy to promoting national interests in the international arena. Messages of greetings have been sent from speakers of the Federation Council and the State Duma, heads of parliamentary committees, executive government bodies, regions of the Russian Federation and the business community.
The high appreciation of the ministry’s work is borne out by the fact that in the past year alone 67 of our colleagues have received state awards, certificates of merit or thank-you letters from the President. We have recently done much to enhance the social protection of our employees and veterans. We are well aware of the outstanding problems in the pension system and measures to improve medical and health resort treatment. We will persistently work to resolve these and other problems.
This attention to our activities enhances our commitments to ensuring favourable external conditions for Russia’s sustainable development, the consolidation of its scientific and technical potential and upgrading the living standards of our citizens.
We realise that we have to resolve these tasks in conditions where the world situation continues to degrade. We are seeing persistent efforts to break the system of international security, the foundations of which were based on the results of World War II and recorded in the UN Charter. Key strategic stability agreements – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear programme and the INF Treaty are falling apart.
Threats and pressure, disinformation and crude methods of dishonest competition in diverse areas – from the economy to sports – are being used. This often amounts to brazen interference in domestic affairs. The developments in Venezuela are a graphic example and far from the only one. Stubborn attempts are being made to replace international law with some “order based on rules.” These rules are invented based on the principle of political expediency and are being used to justify aggressive actions against those that cherish their sovereignty, try to pursue independent foreign policy and uphold collective ways of resolving international issues based on consensus and a balance of interests.
Russia is one of the main obstacles in the way of world hegemony of a small US-led group of Western states. This explains why we are subjected to verbal attacks and unfriendly actions and a desire to impede our domestic progress and push us to the outskirts of world policy.
This is not the first time that the West has become obsessed with the syndrome of its superiority and anything-goes policy. However, it is worth remembering the lessons of history. There should be no doubt. Attempts to dictate foreign policy decisions to Moscow are doomed to failure. As Yevgeny Primakov noted in October 2014, “Russia has positioned itself as a country that is defending its national interests in a multi-polar world. The United States and its European allies do not like this but such is the objective course of history.”
Our confidence is enhanced by the fact that our views on building inter-state communication based on international law and the UN Charter, the principles of mutual respect and consideration for each other’s interests are shared by the overwhelming majority of the members of the international community that are tired of zero-sum games, sanctions and blackmail, and like us, are interested in improving the situation and promoting large-scale and equitable international cooperation.
In consistently implementing the multi-vector foreign policy course approved by President Vladimir Putin, Russian diplomacy is working hard in all areas. Our priorities include the consolidation of neighbourly relations along the entire perimeter of our borders, and promotion of the idea of broad Eurasian integration with the participation of the Asian and European countries. We are productively working in key global organisations, primarily the UN and the G20. We are enhancing cooperation in various formats with our allies and like-minded partners in the EAEU, the CSTO, the CIS, BRICS, the SCO, the RIC and other Asian, African and Latin American countries. We contribute to consolidating the efforts of the world community to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and combat terrorism and drug trafficking.
We continue contributing to the peaceful settlement of numerous crises and conflicts, including Syria where the main terrorist bridgeheads have been routed and Syria’s statehood preserved largely owing to Russia. Now Syria has the following items on its agenda: to reach a stable political settlement based on the decisions of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress that was convened in Sochi a bit over a year ago; rebuild the country and create conditions for the return of refugees. Naturally, we will seek the full and consistent implementation of the UN Security Council resolution that unanimously endorsed the Minsk Package of Measures on a Settlement in Ukraine. We will demand that the current Ukrainian authorities fulfil their international commitments on language, education and religious rights and freedoms.
As for relations with the US, the EU and the West as a whole, we are not short on interest in cooperating on any issue but only based on equitable and mutually respectful dialogue rather than ultimatums. Our proposals in this regard are well known, but as they say, “love cannot be forced.” But we are always open to those who are ready to search for solutions to any global challenges based on equality, mutual respect and a balance of interests.
Friends,
The Russian foreign policy service has always been distinguished by its traditions and careful attitude to the glorious pages of the past. Today too, the wealth of the intellectual heritage of our predecessors is a major advantage in our work. This year we will observe the dates that are linked with the lives of outstanding diplomats: the centenary of Andrey Gromyko, Georgy Pushkin, Anatoly Dobrynin, and Oleg Troyanovsky; and 90 years since the birth of Yevgeny Primakov and Yuly Vorontsov. The ministry’s departments and the Veterans Council will provide fitting observances of these memorable dates.
I hope the staff at our central office, territorial representatives and foreign missions will continue to work proactively, creatively, productively and devote all their efforts and energy to serving the homeland. I wish good health and all the best to you and your families.
Happy Diplomats’ Day to you once again.
The source of information -
http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/...ent/id/3510024
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s greetings on Diplomats’ Day, Moscow, February 10, 2019
10 February 2019 - 00:05
Today we will mark Diplomats’ Day. First of all, I would like to extend my heartfelt greetings on the occasion of our professional holiday to all our colleagues who work at the Central Office and on the “foreign policy frontline,” that is, our offices abroad.
This date is associated with the earliest thus far mention of Russia’s first permanent diplomatic service, the Ambassadorial Department, in the year 1549. However, our service is much older than that, of course, because our nation was an active and independent member of interstate relations from time immemorial, signing international treaties and creating unions with other nations.
Foreign service is a profession that requires the best of human qualities, extensive knowledge, as well as the ability to think broadly and to write skilfully. We are proud that the service always had real patriots and talented people with creative ideas. Many of them made an invaluable contribution to the strengthening of the Russian state and went down in the history of Russian culture.
Diplomatic service has never been a plum job. The protection of national interests is often a life-threatening career. On this day we also commemorate our colleagues who lost their lives defending the homeland and its interests. We will never forget them, and we are grateful to them for what they achieved.
Today the personnel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to build on and to strengthen the glorious traditions of our predecessors, working long hours, often away from their families in countries with adverse weather conditions amid military and political problems. Colleagues, your main responsibility is to implement the country’s foreign policy as approved by President Vladimir Putin and to strengthen its international prestige.
Our success is assured by the traditionally high level of public support for our foreign policy. I can say on behalf of the ministry personnel that in this complicated period of time we will continue to work coherently, showing initiative and doing our very best to ensure a safe and stable future, glory and prosperity for Russia.
In conclusion, I would like to wish the ministry personnel, their families and loved ones, as well as our veterans, good health, prosperity and success in their noble service to the homeland.
Friends, best regards on the occasion of our professional day!
The source of information -
http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/...ent/id/3510166
The following events are not displayed in the English version.
6 February 2019
Meeting of S. Lavrov with the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Head of the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia N. German -
http://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/...ent/id/3502579
7 February 2019
Meeting of S. Lavrov with the leader of the political movement "Syria Tomorrow" Ahmad Jarboy -
http://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/...ent/id/3503301