#VideoOfTheDay

📹 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov greets Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi ahead of talks in Moscow

🇷🇺🇨🇳 #RussiaChina

⚡️ Journalists are awaiting in anticipation for the Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov & Wang Yi to conclude talks & procced with the signing ceremony, where joint documents will be penned.

📍 Moscow, Morozov Mansion aka Reception House of the Russian Ministry

🇷🇺🇨🇳 #RussiaChina

🎙 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during talks with Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi (Moscow, April 1, 2025)

💬 Esteemed Mr Minister,

Dear Friend,

Friends, colleagues,

We are pleased to welcome Mr Wang Yi to Moscow on an official visit, the objective of which is to prepare for the upcoming Russia-China summit in May.

Meetings between President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping consistently provide a powerful impetus for the further advancement of our relations, which, under the leadership of our two heads of state, have reached an unprecedented level and continue to develop dynamically across all dimensions.

This year holds particular significance. The Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China, and the entire international community mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Second World War in Europe and the East, as well as the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, in which our two nations play a leading role in upholding the fundamental principles of its Charter.

Today, the task of constructing a reliable barrier against the resurgence of fascist, Nazi, and militarist ideologies – as well as all forces seeking to revive these unacceptable phenomena – remains critically urgent.

🤝 Russia and China are united not only by a historical brotherhood in arms and shared extensive borders but also by centuries-old traditions of good-neighbourliness and a broad alignment of national interests.

We noted with interest your recent remarks, Mr Wang Yi, during a media briefing in Beijing, where you emphasised that the comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between our nations constitute a constant, not a variable. This is precisely the guidance provided by our leaders, President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping.

Recently, during their engagement via videoconference – preceded by a telephone conversation – they reaffirmed their mutual commitment to the consistent strengthening of the Russia-China partnership. We will spare no effort to ensure the effective implementation of these agreements.

We underscore the responsibility of Moscow and Beijing to maintain close coordination on the international stage. In this era of complex global political developments, the countries of the Global Majority regard our collaboration as the most significant stabilising factor.

I am confident that today we will reach consensus on advancing our bilateral relations in the context of preparations for high-level meetings, as well as on further coordination within the United Nations, its Security Council, the #SCO, #BRICS, the G20, #ASEAN frameworks, and other multilateral platforms with a view to establishing a more just and democratic multipolar world order.

🇷🇺🇨🇳 #RussiaChina

Vladimir Putin met with President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik at the Kremlin

On the Russian side, Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov took part in the talks.

See more on the Kremlin’s official website.

🇷🇺🇨🇳 President of Russia Vladimir Putin met with Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China, Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, in the Kremlin (April 1, Moscow)

💬 President Putin: Mr Minister, friends.

Allow me to cordially welcome you to Moscow. I am very pleased to see you again.

Before we begin our conversation, I would like to ask you to convey my friendly greetings to the President of the People’s Republic of China, our good friend Mr Xi Jinping.

We are waiting for him in Russia on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, World War II. We will mark this anniversary – victory over Nazi Germany and victory over militaristic Japan – together.

We would like to express satisfaction with the way our relations are developing, including with the direct support of our respective Foreign Ministries. I am aware that you have an extensive and busy programme for your visit. First of all, it is connected with preparations for the visit of the President of the People’s Republic of China to Russia. We will prepare a good and fulfilling programme.

I hope it will involve not only participation in solemn events, but will also be a separate visit. The President of the People’s Republic of China will be our main guest, and we will have an opportunity to discuss the current state of bilateral relations and our interaction on international venues, primarily the UN – the UN Security Council – as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, BRICS and a number of other platforms where we work together with great success.

We are very pleased to see you.

Welcome, Mr Minister.

🇷🇺🇨🇳 #RussiaChina

🇷🇺🇧🇾 On April 2, the peoples of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus celebrate their Day of Unity.

✍️ #OTD in 1996, they signed a treaty on the formation of the Community of Russia and Belarus, which served as the first step towards the creation of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.

The Treaty on the Union of Russia and Belarus came into force a year later, and on December 8, 1999, the Treaty on the Creation of the Union State was signed.

🤝 Today, the Union State implements programmes in industry, energy and IT, to name a few. Trade between Russia and Belarus grows at record high rates every year, given the considerable degree of mutual complementarity of their economies.

💬 President Vladimir Putin:

We have been working together to build the Union State for almost 25 years. Along this path, we have managed to achieve a great deal. Thanks to the successful implementation of 28 sectoral Union programmes, Russian and Belarusian legislation was harmonised, the legal and organisational foundations for a common economic space formed, and conditions created for the implementation of a unified macroeconomic and monetary policy, and for joint work to minimise damage from illegal Western restrictions.

☝️ The Unity Day of the Peoples of Russia and Belarus confirms the cohesion of the two fraternal peoples and their striving to continue strengthening their interaction based on the centuries-old traditions of friendship and close cultural and spiritual ties.

🎊 We congratulate our Belarusian friends on a holiday that is a symbol of unbreakable ties of brotherly friendship between our countries and peoples!

🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answer to a media question, Moscow, April 1, 2025 (Moscow, April 1, 2025)

❓ I have a question about strikes on energy infrastructure. We keep hearing mixed messages coming from Kiev. One day they are ready to sit down and talk, and next thing you know they keep attacking our facilities. Could you provide an update on where things stand with regard to the moratorium? Is it being observed, if so, to what extent, and is it still in force for us and the other party?

💬 Sergey Lavrov: At the very beginning of today’s meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and before taking up the main issue of combatting terrorist threats, President Vladimir Putin asked Defence Minister Andrey Belousov and me to provide an update on the status of our relations with the United States on the Ukrainian dossier.

Andrey Belousov spoke precisely about the moratorium that was agreed upon at the suggestion of President Trump on March 18 during the telephone call between the President of Russia and the President of the United States.

❗️ The moratorium is not being observed. All this time, the energy facilities of the Russian Federation have been coming under attacks with occasional short breaks of one to two days between them.

Defence Minister Belousov listed the facilities targeted by Ukrainian drones over the period under review, including last night.

My update went along the same lines. The Russian army is observing the moratorium that President Putin ordered to strictly comply with on March 18 during a telephone conversation with President Trump.

Remember, President Putin said seven drones were on their way to attack targets in Ukraine as they were having this telephone conversation. The drones were destroyed by our air defence forces and a jet fighter on duty that was up in the air at the time. Since then, we have been 100 percent compliant with that agreement with President Trump.

We passed the list of violations cited by Defence Minister Andrey Belousov at the Security Council meeting to US National Security Adviser Michael Waltz. I forwarded this list to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and our representatives at the UN and the OSCE for them to use these concrete facts in their work and let everyone know the real worth of the words uttered by the current Ukrainian authorities, if “this” can even be called authorities.

In addition to this topic, President Putin asked me to provide an update on other areas of work with the Americans, including matters that were discussed on March 24 in Riyadh, when experts from Russia and the United States met to discuss the revivification, resumption, and resuscitation of the grain Black Sea Initiative. During the talks in Riyadh, we highly appreciated - President Putin supported this assessment - the United States’ willingness to help eliminate obstacles created by illegal unilateral sanctions imposed on Russian grain and fertiliser exports. They created tensions on global markets and difficulties for the developing countries, which faced limited access to food and fertiliser.

We supported the US willingness to act in that regard which was laid out on paper after the March 24 meeting, and added specific proposals on how this could be done in practice.

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The third topic of our interaction with the Americans is about eliminating “irritants” that seriously impede the work of our Embassy in Washington D.C. and the US Embassy in Moscow. Clearly, we did not initiate these obstacles. The Obama Administration did quite a lot in that regard. We only responded under the diplomatic law of reciprocity, which no one has torn up yet.

There was a meeting in Istanbul. Preparations are underway to hold a second one. There are contacts by phone and videoconference calls. I’d rather not make any predictions, but we can see signs of progress and our US partners’ willingness to lift these obstacles to normal work of diplomats in our respective capitals that are absolutely unacceptable from the point of view of diplomatic practice.

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