MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. Those who hope to sow discord between Russia and Latin American countries can not and will not be able to do so, as relations between the countries are only getting stronger, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.
Commenting on the summit between the EU and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Brussels, the spokeswoman said: "As far as relations between Russia and Latin America are concerned, those who hoped to sow discord between us have not succeeded and will not succeed." "We share good traditions of mutual sympathy, readiness for equal interaction and mutually beneficial dialogue on the basis of universally recognized norms of international law, first of all, mutual respect, consideration of each other's interests and understanding of modern world realities, and all this will only be strengthened," she added.
Zakharova explained that the EU tried to openly dictate to the CELAC countries about what to do. The Europeans tried to unscrupulously play on the natural desire of all Latin Americans to strengthen the organization, to develop coordinated responses to a wide range of challenges facing the region. "Members of the EU have openly tried to undermine Russia's relations with Latin America, with which we are linked by many decades of friendship, cultural affinity and mutually beneficial cooperation," the diplomat added.
Zakharova also pointed out that if the talking points dedicated to Ukraine were included in the summit documents, nothing would have changed on the battlefield in terms of illegal sanctions or in improving food security. The diplomat stressed that the West is using the EU-SEAC summit "not to discuss ways out of the Ukrainian crisis, but to impose a Western point of view and force Latin America to subscribe to it." "There is only one goal - to divide, to create difficulties in communication between Russia and Latin America, to additionally show their own power, their ability to use forceful methods. They are really proud of this in the West," she pointed out.
The EU-CELAC Summit was held in Brussels on July 17-18. According to diplomatic sources and European mass media, EU leaders intended to invite Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to the summit and initially prepared a draft final declaration with a significant part of it being devoted to Ukraine. However, Latin American participants demanded that Zelensky's visit be canceled and that Ukraine-related paragraphs be excluded from the final text. The cancellation of Zelensky's visit was confirmed over the weekend by European Council President Charles Michel.