The Vice-minister for Multilateral Issues, Daniela Rodríguez, concluded her visit to the Russian Federation on Monday, during which she held various meetings with diplomatic and academic authorities of the Eurasian nation.
The Venezuelan diplomat initially participated in the III International Conference Challenges of global biosafety: problems and solutions, which was held in the city of Sochi between June 24 and 25, in the panel Development of international cooperation under the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention (BTWC).
During her presentation Priorities for strengthening the BTWC: a perspective from the Global Sout, the Vice-minister delved into the challenges of international cooperation and assured that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela grants great importance to cooperation as one of the the pillars of the Convention.
Likewise, she stressed the importance of providing assistance and cooperation in areas related to the Convention and condemned the lack of political will of some member countries to fulfill this mission.
In the context of this Conference, the Venezuelan diplomat held a meeting with the Vice-minister of Foreign Relations of Russia, Sergei Riabkov, in which they discussed the strengthening of the regime of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons.
The parties also evaluated other aspects of Russian-Venezuelan cooperation in multilateral formats.
Multilateral agenda
In Moscow, Vice-minister Rodríguez was received by the Russian Vice-minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Vershinin, with whom she exchanged views on the strategic initiatives of both countries in the multilateral arena.
In this meeting, the parties agreed on the strengthening of cooperation between Venezuela and Russia; as well as in the agreement of positions in the multilateral sphere to promote respect for International Law, multilateralism and the Charter of the United Nations. In addition, ideas were exchanged on the Venezuelan proposal to create an Association of Countries against Unilateral Coercive Measures.
Vice-minister Rodríguez also met in the Russian capital with Troyanskii Mikhaíl Grigorievich, Acting Rector for Professional Improvement and Retraining of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, with whom she talked about the strengthening of the cooperation agreements existing between both countries, as well as the creation of new mechanisms for the research and training on multilateral issues.