Lavrov to Cuba on way to Central American parley

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia and Guatemala next week, his office announced today (March 16).

The director of the ministry’s Latin American Department, Aleksandr Shchetinin, said the tour will last from March 24 to the 26th. It will begin in Cuba and will end in Guatemala, at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Central American Integration System (SICA).

Within the framework of activities in Guatemala, all parties hope to agree on “a joint vision of multilateral cooperation between Russia and the countries of Central America,” Shchetinin said.

“With most of the countries of Central America, we have very close and intensive bilateral relations, but we want to see what the possibilities are for cooperation in a multilevel format,” he said.

As an example of effective cooperation, the diplomat cited the work of the regional training center in Nicaragua for drug interdiction. It was inaugurated in 2012 and regularly offers refresher courses for antidrug forces from all of Central America.

“This is very important. It is a practical task that allows us to solve very specific issues. We want to identify other projects that can be similarly developed on a multilateral basis,” Shchetinin said.

Lavrov last visited Cuba in April of last year, preparing the way for President Vladimir Putin’s tour of several hemispheric nations in July. In photo at top, made at that time, he is shown with Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.