ST. PETERSBURG, June 15. /TASS/. The United States sought to take advantage of the Summit of the Americans to reduce Latin American nations’ cooperation with Moscow and Beijing, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Wednesday.
"Everything that Washington views as kind of a common agenda is essentially aimed at destroying the natural ties that exist between various regions and Russia and China," she pointed out. "Latin American nations were intimidated by stories of Moscow’s role in destabilizing the food and energy markets," she said. "This is despite the fact that for years, we have been building mutually beneficial energy cooperation and partnership with all regions of the world based on the existing laws," Zakharova noted, adding that Washington had also tried to make countries and companies abandon Russian supplies, with a bid to replace the resource provider.
At the same time, in Zakharova’s words, no ways to resolve pressing issues facing Latin American countries were outlined at the event. She noted that US President Joe Biden was promoting the idea of regional exceptionalism, while the summit’s agenda was aimed at ensuring the United States’ image of leadership.
Some of the decisions that Washington pressed for amounted to interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries, the Russian diplomat noted. Many of the summit’s participants opposed such an approach and discrimination against certain countries such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela whose leaders had not been invited to the event. The summit made it clear that the Monroe Doctrine era was over and the countries of the region sought equality, unwilling to obey others and serve as their tools, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.