PRETORIA, 23 Jan: Moscow was willing to negotiate with Ukraine in the early months of the war but the U.S. and other Western nations advised Kyiv against it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday.
\nLavrov\u2019s remarks on a visit to South Africa were similar to those made last year by Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country was ready for talks but Ukraine\u2019s Western allies prevented that from happening.
\nThe U.S. and other Western nations have said that Russia is not serious about negotiations to end the war, set to mark its one-year anniversary next month.
\n\u201cIt is well known that we supported the proposal of the Ukrainian side to negotiate early in the special military operation and by the end of March, the two delegations agreed on the principle to settle this conflict,\u201d Lavrov said.
\n\u201cIt is well known and was published openly that our American, British, and some European colleagues told Ukraine that it is too early to deal, and the arrangement which was almost agreed was never revisited by the Kyiv regime.\u201d
\nRussia has repeatedly rejected Ukrainian and Western demands that it withdraw completely from Ukraine as a condition for any negotiations. President Joe Biden has indicated he would be willing to talk with Putin if the Russian leader demonstrated that he seriously wanted to end the invasion.
\nLavrov is in Pretoria for talks with his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor as Russia pushes to strengthen ties with Africa\u2019s most developed country and an historical ally amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
\nSouth Africa was seen as the most significant of several African nations to take a neutral stance on the war and refuse to condemn Russia\u2019s invasion – to the disappointment of the U.S. and other Western partners who also view South Africa as pivotal to their plans to build relationships in Africa.
\nLavrov met with Pandor in the South African capital and is expected to visit other African countries on his trip. It\u2019s Lavrov\u2019s second visit to Africa in the space of six months as Russia seeks to rally support.
\nThe war in Ukraine and its impact on Africa\u2019s 1.3 billion people, which includes rising global oil and food prices, is expected to take center stage during Lavrov\u2019s talks with Pandor.
\n\u201cWe are fully alert that conflict, wherever it exists in the world, impacts negatively on all of us, and as the developing world it impacts on us particularly as the African continent,\u201d Pandor said. \u201cThis is why as South Africa we consistently articulate that we will always stand ready to support the peaceful resolution of conflicts in the continent and throughout the globe.\u201d
\nSouth Africa continues to keep strong bonds with Russia following the Soviet Union\u2019s support for the country\u2019s current ruling party, the African National Congress, when it was a liberation movement fighting to end the apartheid system of repression against South Africa\u2019s Black majority.
\nThat relationship is largely what led South Africa to abstain from a United Nations vote last year condemning Russia\u2019s actions in Ukraine.
\nDespite South Africa\u2019s expressed neutrality over Ukraine, Lavrov\u2019s visit comes days after the South African armed forces announced they would hold joint drills with the Russian and Chinese navies off its eastern coast next month.
\nLavrov\u2019s visit to Africa last year was closely followed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken\u2019s trip to South Africa that was seen as a U.S. bid to counter expanding Russian influence in a strategically important continent.
\nThis time, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited Senegal and Zambia ahead of an official visit to South Africa starting Wednesday. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PRETORIA, 23 Jan: Moscow was willing to negotiate with Ukraine in the early months of the war but the U.S. and other Western nations advised Kyiv against it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday. Lavrov\u2019s remarks on a visit to South Africa were similar to those made last year by Russian President Vladimir Putin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-209394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}