Russia’s Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov arrived in Managua this Wednesday, as part of a trip to Latin America, to discuss bilateral relations between the two countries with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.
Nicaragua’s vice president and Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo, revealed through state media that the Russian chancellor arrived at Augusto C. Sandino International Airport, the country’s main airport, at around 1:11 p.m. (7:11 p.m. in Lisbon).
Lavrov was welcomed at the airport by his Nicaraguan counterpart, Denis Moncada, and Laureano Ortega Murillo, son of that country’s presidential couple.
President Ortega, according to Murillo, had scheduled a meeting with Lavrov in the “next hours” to discuss Russia’s presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as bilateral cooperation between the two countries, as part of a “constructive and respectful ” .
Murillo, who said the day before that Nicaragua and Russia are united by “historic, revolutionary, solidarity and fraternal ties”, celebrated the creation of a “multipolar world” led by China and Russia.
The head of Russian diplomacy arrived in Managua after a visit to Brazil, where he met with the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as well as the chancellor, Muro Vieira.
This was followed by Venezuela, where he met with the Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, and with the Chancellor, Yván Gil.
Lavrov also met his Bolivian counterpart, Rogelio Mayta, in Caracas, to whom he expressed the hope that the Andean country’s president, Luis Arce, would be able to visit Russia as soon as he had the chance.
The Russian Foreign Minister also met at the embassy in Caracas with the Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, according to the Kremlin.
After a brief visit to Nicaragua, where he led a large Russian delegation, Lavrov is expected to arrive this evening in Cuba, a country with which Russia maintains intense economic and political relations.
Nicaragua and Russia, which have established diplomatic relations since 1944, have strengthened ties and bilateral cooperation in several areas following the return of Ortega and the Sandinistas in 2007.
Russia is a longtime ally of Nicaragua, which supplied Soviet weapons to Nicaragua’s armed forces during the first Sandinista government (1979-1990).
Nicaragua is one of the few countries, along with Venezuela and the small island states of Nauru and Tuvalu, to join Russia in recognizing the independence of Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.and who has hosted top Russian officials since Moscow invaded Ukraine.
Source: DN
