Russia’s Foreign Minister urged countries to unite against Western “blackmail” on Tuesday, during a tour of Latin America.
“It is necessary to join forces to counter blackmail attempts and illegal unilateral pressure from the West,” said Sergei Lavrov in Venezuela’s capital Caracas.
Speaking alongside his Venezuelan counterpart Yvan Gil, Russia’s top diplomat invoked a “multipolar world”, one not dominated by the United States (US) and its allies.
Venezuela is the second leg of Lavrov’s whistle-stop tour of Latin America. He first visited Brazil and will go on to Cuba and Nicaragua next.
“Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are choosing their own path,” he said.
All three countries are led by socialist-leaning governments and have fraught relations with the US.
The Russian official also discussed the Ukraine war.
“We will resolve the situation in Ukraine and other conflicts in the world through the principles of the United Nations Charter on the sovereign equity of States, on the principle of the indivisibility of security,” he said.
“Our task is to ensure that the UN Charter is applied in full and that the right to self-determination is not taken away when it suits the West.”
Venezuela, already a key Russian ally since the days of President Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), has continually supported Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin before and after the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has helped Venezuela circumvent sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western powers.
