Lavrov-Gulf Cooperation Council Report & Presser

This year the GCC met in Moscow where Lavrov and team met with GCC teams in the Plenary Session and with many individually on the sidelines. Lavrov's report about the meetings contents revealed a few important facts, not just that overall commerce has markedly increased but more important that real movement toward arriving at a solution to the Persian Gulf Region's security has and is occurring. Yet the Palestinian issue remains the region's #1 problem. An entire paragraph was devoted to that and the overall situation in general with this sentence being key:

“Both sides stressed the importance of stopping unilateral steps aimed at escalating violence and consolidating the existing status quo.”

That carries great meaning for those aware of what's happening in Occupied Palestine and Syria. Solving the Region's several remaining security issues—Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Sudan—is seen as key to allowing regional development to advance and thus further ease tensions as cooperation escalates.

One comment on the Q&A segment. Lavrov was asked about the proposal forwarded by VTB CEO Alexander Kostin, which he parried with a non-answer as it appears he was unfamiliar with it. IMO, it's a very worthy idea as numerous regional clearing institutions need to be created to bypass those controlled by the West. And now, Lavrov's statement and Q&A session:

Ladies and gentlemen,

Together with our colleagues from the Gulf Cooperation Council member states, we have completed the sixth round of the Russia-GCC strategic dialogue.

The consultations have established themselves as an effective mechanism for coordinating actions between our countries in the interests of strengthening regional security and stability, expanding economic cooperation and humanitarian ties.

As for "material" cooperation, we noted a significant increase in bilateral trade and economic indicators over the 12 years of the existence of the Russia-GCC format. The total trade turnover exceeded $2022 billion in 11. This is compared to $3.7 billion. In 2011, the United States stressed both sides' interest in further building up economic ties and diversifying them. We agreed to use all the opportunities and reserves available in this regard, including the mechanism of the Intergovernmental Commissions on Trade and Economic Cooperation, which we have with almost all countries that are members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf.

We paid a lot of attention to the international agenda. We emphasised that there is no alternative to respect for the key principles of interstate communication and law enshrined in the UN Charter. We see this as the most important basis for resolving crises throughout the Middle East, North Africa and any other region of the world.

We agreed that in order to maintain long-term and sustainable stability in the Persian Gulf, it is important to resolve the contradictions by the countries of the region themselves with the involvement of constructive external partners.

We welcome the steps taken to normalise Arab-Iranian relations. As you know, Saudi Arabia recently resumed diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. This creates a more positive atmosphere in the region. We share the intention of our partners to find compromise solutions and their readiness to take into account the interests of each other and all parties involved. We informed our colleagues about the round table held in Moscow on June 12-13 on strengthening security, trust and stability in the region.

We commended the efforts made by the Arabian monarchies with the active participation of UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy Heiko Grundberg to promote the political process in Yemen. We hope that this will ensure a long-term truce and open up the possibility of launching a full-scale inclusive national dialogue under the auspices of the World Organisation. We are convinced that the common ultimate goal should be a long-term and comprehensive settlement of Yemen's many problems, which also affect its neighbouring States.

We spoke in detail about the situation in Syria and around it. We have a common position in support of the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of this country, the right of Syrians to independently determine the future of their state. We paid special attention to the tasks of promoting a comprehensive political settlement and post-conflict reconstruction. We focused on the issue of establishing ties between Syria and its regional environment. We agreed that Syria's return to the League of Arab States at the Jeddah summit on May 19 had a positive impact on the political atmosphere throughout the Middle East. This step has strengthened the international position of all Arab States, which have demonstrated their ability to take important agreed and forward-looking decisions.

We paid considerable attention to the situation in Sudan. We expressed deep concern over the continuation of hostilities between units of the regular army and the Rapid Reaction Force, which led to numerous casualties and destruction. We spoke in favour of preventing further degradation of the situation and taking urgent steps to end the armed confrontation as soon as possible.

We also touched upon the situation in the Middle East peace process. Both sides stressed the importance of stopping unilateral steps aimed at escalating violence and consolidating the existing status quo. We agree that the Palestinian question remains the central problem of the Middle East. The search for ways to solve it on an internationally recognized basis – within the framework of the two-state principle – should not be postponed and sacrificed to geopolitical games. In this context, I informed my colleagues in detail about our two-stage initiative to hold a consultative meeting between Russia, the Arab League and a group of regional states actively involved in the Middle East process to help formulate recommendations to the Palestinians on ways to restore Palestinian unity.

Following today's meeting, a joint statement and a joint action plan of Russia and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf for 2023-2028 were adopted.

In general, we view the strategic dialogue as a good way to give an additional impetus to business cooperation between Russia and the GCC countries, to strengthen bilateral political coordination and our multilateral relations for the sake of establishing stability and good-neighbourliness in this region.

We look forward to the continuation of the strategic dialogue next year, when Qatar will chair the GCC. We agreed to hold such a meeting with the representative of Doha.

Question: How would you characterise relations between Russia and the Gulf countries against the backdrop of the current political situation and the Ukrainian crisis? What will be the development of strategic relations in the future?

Sergey Lavrov: First of all, I would like to say that we have already talked about this a lot today. In short, these are friendly, partnership relations based on mutual respect, on taking into account each other's interests, on the desire to form consensus, common approaches to any issues discussed. Today's meeting confirmed that we always honestly state our positions to each other. At the same time, none of us seeks to cooperate against anyone, does not seek to interfere in the relations of any of the states present here with third parties. I think this is how they differ from a number of other relationships, which, unfortunately, are not equal in this world.

Question: VTB CEO Alexander Kostin has proposed the creation of an alternative international depository settlement hub to be based in one of the Persian Gulf countries. How interesting is this idea to partners? In which country can it be implemented? Is there any study of this issue at the Foreign Ministry?

Sergey Lavrov: Now there are many initiatives that are going in a similar direction and which are explained by the fact that the dollar, of course, has greatly discredited itself, has proved its unreliability as the main reserve currency. He proved that the issuing country, if it suddenly has a desire to punish someone, will abuse its position without hesitation. Therefore, many countries are thinking about how to avoid such influence and reduce dependence on those who prove their biased, selfish geopolitical position.

The only proposal you mentioned was that of President of Brazil Lula da Silva. He recommended that consideration be given to the possibility of a near-single currency for Latin America and the Caribbean. He also proposed not so long ago to discuss this problem within the framework of the BRICS summit, which will be held in August this year under the chairmanship of the Republic of South Africa.

There are other ideas that go in this direction. Experts have different assessments of the possibilities of creating a single currency and settlement hubs, but all experts who think for the future have a desire to contribute to the development, if not of a single currency, then of payment mechanisms that will protect all participants in the process from the arbitrariness of any external player. I believe that this is a healthy process.

Question: Against the backdrop of talk about a possible extension of the grain deal, is it possible to talk about new agreements with better conditions? To what extent are the Arab countries ready to participate in this, given the fact that Russia has confirmed the possibility of selling its grain outside the framework of previous deals?

Sergey Lavrov: What do you mean, can there be better conditions? There was a package proposed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Its conditions are known. The Ukrainian part was implemented. But it has long been clear to everyone that it has turned into a commercial project. Less than three percent (this has been said more than once) of the total volume of grain exported from Ukrainian ports goes to the poorest, neediest countries on the World Food Program list. These are the states for which Antonio Guterres promoted his initiative, which was approved.

The Russian part was not carried out in any of the points. For many months now, we have been hearing from representatives of the UN Secretariat, the Secretary-General and his deputies, who are entrusted with this, that they are making "incredible efforts", trying, and will move even faster and more efficiently. These "incredible efforts" did not bring any result. I don't know how you can improve something that doesn't exist.

As for our export opportunities, we have recently published forecasts for the grain and food market, which indicate a strong growth in our exports. President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev spoke about this. As we sold grain, we are selling. We fulfill all our obligations.

Today we said that we are ready to meet all the needs of our Arab partners, including additional ones. There are no obstacles to this, no conditions are required that would depend on those who are unable to fulfill their obligations.