Lavrov, Namibia & the Investigation

Namibia’s Minister of International Relations Peter Mushelenga met with Mr. Lavrov today for substantial talks about their national relations. Lavrov’s summary of the meeting provides a good overview of general Russian-African relations and Namibia specifically. IMO, Russia’s African project is going very well and will be fruitful for both as time moves forward. There’s just one Q&A to which Lavrov’s answer is important as it slightly modifies Russian-European relations and that to the specific Western institution mentioned. For a Lavrov related item, the read is short:

Ladies and gentlemen,

We held substantive and useful talks with Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of Namibia Paul Mushelenga. This is the first visit of Mr. Minister to our country in his new capacity. Prior to that, he had been to Russia, holding other positions in the Namibian government.

We noted that bilateral relations, which date back to the period of the Namibian people's uncompromising struggle for self-determination, are developing steadily. They are based on friendship and mutual sympathy between our peoples. In March 2025, we will celebrate the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. They were established on the same day as the declaration of independence of this African state.

We are satisfied with the political dialogue between our countries. It is of a regular nature and expands into new areas. We welcomed the intensification of contacts between the parliaments and parties of the two countries, the intensification of exchanges between ministries and departments, including between the foreign ministries on the basis of a long-standing and well-functioning plan of consultations.

Unfortunately, bilateral trade is still very modest. Today, we showed mutual interest in the growth of mutual trade and the implementation of investment projects. This will be facilitated by the active work of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. My colleague is its co-chair on the Namibian side, and Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Yury Trutnev on the Russian side. On March 27, Moscow will host the 10th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission. We expect new important decisions from it.

Among the most promising areas of cooperation were geological exploration, extraction and processing of mineral resources (including uranium and diamonds), energy, agriculture, fisheries, healthcare, training, culture, tourism, and sports. There are many promising areas in which we can build up our cooperation. We also agreed to step up joint work to complete the coordination of a number of draft intergovernmental and interdepartmental documents.

There was an exchange of views on topical issues of world politics. Our positions coincide on all key issues of the world order. Russia, like Namibia, is in favour of democratising international relations and building them on the basis of the norms and principles of the UN Charter in their entirety and interconnection without attempts to interpret the Charter "on a case-by-case basis", as our Western "colleagues" want. Such actions are very characteristic of them.

We discussed the need to reform the UN and its Security Council. For our part, we reaffirmed our unwavering position that the legitimate interests of the countries of the African continent should be fully taken into account in these processes.

We are grateful to Namibia for its solidarity with a number of Russian initiatives in the UN organisation, including the resolution on combating the glorification of Nazism, on space and disarmament issues, and on cybersecurity. We provide mutual support to the candidates of our countries during the elections to various UN bodies.

We paid a lot of attention to regional issues. First of all, we focused on the situation in the Southern African Development Community, with an emphasis on the situation in the "hot spots" – in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the north of Mozambique. Expressed appreciation and appreciation for the proactive and useful role played by Namibia in these efforts.

Russia attaches great importance to strengthening the sovereignty of African countries. We reaffirmed our position on the need for everyone to respect the principle of African solutions to African problems. The international community should provide all possible assistance to Africans, including in the preparation and equipping of peacekeeping operations and the financing of projects. Our position was reaffirmed today. The African Union, the Southern African Development Community and other subregional organizations on the continent have an important role to play in promoting such an approach.

We outlined our mutual commitment to intensifying cooperation between Russia and the Southern African Development Community. We have a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Community on the Foundations of Relations and Cooperation.

We discussed the prospects for expanding cooperation within the framework of the Russia–Africa Partnership Forum. Namibia took part in the first Russia-Africa summit in 2019 and the second in 2023 in St. Petersburg. Following the decision of the St Petersburg summit, a Russian-African meeting at the level of foreign ministers will be held in Russia in November of this year. We hope that our Namibian friends will accept our invitation.

I would like to take this opportunity to stress once again that we view the expansion of cooperation with Africa and the Southern African Development Community through the prism of strengthening the foundations of the emerging polycentric world order. Similar work is being carried out and will be intensified with regard to other regional and subregional civilisational centres of the Global South and the East, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

We exchanged views on the situation in the Middle East in the context of the sharp aggravation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as well as the massive, unjustified and illegal strikes by the US- and UK-led international coalition on Yemen.

We touched upon the situation in Ukraine and around it. I conveyed to our colleagues the current vision of the Russian Federation of the situation that is developing during the special military operation to resolve the conflict provoked by the "collective West" (no one has any doubts about this) in order to contain our country. We are grateful to our Namibian friends for their balanced position on this issue. They invariably take it up at the UN when discussing relevant issues.

We have made sure that our friends understand the essence of the plans behind the initiative to hold a "peace summit". As an ultimatum, the West is trying to base them on Vladimir Zelensky's unpromising "peace formula". It won't get you anywhere. This understanding is shown by the overwhelming majority of states invited by the West and Kiev to such "get-togethers."

I think the talks were useful. I would like to express my gratitude to my colleague.

Question: Does Russia plan to use the specialised institutions of the UN and other international organisations to deal with counterterrorism after the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall on March 22?

Sergey Lavrov: I would like to draw your attention to the following circumstances.

We have already launched our own fairly effective and prompt investigation, which brings new facts every day. They will be summarized by the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor General's Office and other competent authorities of the Russian Federation.

Interestingly, literally a day after the terrorist attack, when statements were made in the West that of course it was not Ukraine, but the Islamic State, at the same time the leadership of Interpol unexpectedly announced that they would be ready to assist in the investigation.

I do not recall such an initiative from Interpol in previous cases, which also required the closest international attention. The most obvious example is Nord Stream. No one volunteered to help us investigate. Moreover, the countries through whose waters the two "strings" of Nord Stream ran (Sweden, Denmark and Germany) said that they would sort it out themselves. We have repeatedly appealed to the UN Security Council to adopt an absolutely depoliticised resolution that will call for a transparent international investigation. We received a categorical refusal. When we raised the issue that all those responsible should be punished as a result of such an investigation, this particular phrase was blocked directly by the Americans and the British.

On the one hand, I am sure that we will cope with this investigation. On the other hand, we will hardly need such assistance, which will clearly be a manifestation of double standards and, most likely, will be aimed at promoting the theory convenient for the West that the Islamic State did this, and Ukraine had nothing to do with it. We'll do it ourselves. We have long been accustomed to the double standards of our Western friends. From now on, we will act solely on the basis of our full understanding of what the West is trying to achieve and by what methods.

Future Russian relations with Africa: Rosey. Future Russian relations with the West: Unfriendly at best. The Interpol scheme is further confirmation of Ukraine being one of those directly connected to the Terrorist attack. I should direct readers to Pepe Escobar’s latest article which takes a deep look onto that plot, “The Nuland – Budanov – Tajik – Crocus connection.” Do take the time to read the postings by S he links to for further info on the Ukie-Tajik connections.

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