The concluding press conference held by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ended a few minutes ago. The minister spoke about the diplomats' work last year.
Our correspondent Anna Baldina will tell us about the central topics and what the journalists focused on. She's live now.
- Anna, hello. We're waiting for the details. What was your question about?
- The big annual press-conference of the Foreign Ministry gathered journalists from all over the world, from Austria to Japan. The registration numbers of the journalists were triple-digit, meaning that there were a lot of my colleagues.
Interestingly, only 2 out of 30 questions were in English, from the Americans and the Canadians. In general, foreign correspondents tried to speak Russian, though not fluently and with accent.
Our question was about the last year's vocabulary, the most important topics and phrases. Sergey Lavrov didn't mind enumerating the topics by state, but he chose not to cover the phrases because, as he put it, "they might get him wrong". Indeed, Russia has been often caught in a word recently.
The press conference lasted for 2.5 hours, which was enough for us to make up a vocabulary list. It isn't very optimistic: "sliding downhill", "the lens of confrontation", "fake", "eating one's words", "chasing a rabbit". The last phrase doesn't refer to politics, but to photoreporters who keep trying to get backstage and sometimes disturb the work.
The Minister called Syria the topic of the year. I remind you that in December 2017 the Russian President ordered to withdraw troops from Syria. The Syrian National Dialogue Congress is to take place in Sochi in late January. Nevertheless, foreign players are still active on the country's territory, their actions being not always clear. Let's listen to the Minister's comment.
Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister: "Yesterday a new initiative was announced, The US wants to help the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, to create some cross-border security areas. In fact, it means to alienate a huge territory along the border with Turkey and Iraq as well as to the east of Euphrates. There, the relationship between the Kurds, Arabs is very complicated. Declaring that the area will be controlled by up 30,000 troops is sparking concerns that they intend to divide the country".
Journalists of both North and South Korea attended the conference. It highlights the importance of the Korean issue in 2017. Russia and China propose to reach a political settlement through a moratorium on any provocations and maneuvers near the Korean peninsula. It's about negotiability, which has been in decline over the past year. If the USA, as the Minister put it, eats its words on the Iran nuclear deal, why should North Korea believe its Western partners?
CNN asked an ironic question with a humorous undertone: “Does the Foreign Ministry regret that Donald Trump became the US President instead of Hillary Clinton?”
The Minister strictly answered that diplomacy knows no subjunctive mood. But the trend is, according to Sergey Lavrov, that the USA fear a fair competition. He finds the traces of this fear in the doping scandal. But Sergey Lavrov believes that it's natural that new forces appear in the world. Let's listen to his comment.
Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister: "As soon as an American initiative faces not even resistance, but just a counterproposition, the USA, impatient, threatens with sanctions. There are many examples of this. The actions of the incumbent administration as well as of Obama's one give away, I'd say, the fear of a fair competition".
It's noteworthy that Sergey Lavrov quotes from memory the timeline and international documents. He also quotes the troubled Minsk agreements. When asked about Ukraine, he regrets that Washington and European partners can't or don't want to encourage Kiev to fulfill the agreements. Let's listen to the Minister.
Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister: "This issue is a bit overhyped and viewed as a touchstone of the confrontation between Russia and the West as a whole. If we refused this lens of confrontation and focused on the Minsk agreements, the crisis would have been settled long ago because it would mean the freedom from the ideologized vision of the situation which would allow our Western counterparts to stop the irreflective and unconditional support of the policy conducted by Kiev to abandon its obligations under the Minsk agreements".
Sergey Lavrov didn't answer the question about his professional future after the presidential election and the formation of a new government, saying that he's used to doing diplomacy only, and, most importantly, he has the task for now — to work.
It was the conference summing up the Russian foreign politics in 2017. We'll get back to the news later. Colleagues?
- Thanks. It was my colleague Anna Baldina who followed the concluding press conference of the Russian Foreign Minister.
