Russia and Bolivia underline progress in bilateral relations despite pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “The pandemic did not hinder the progressive development of our relations with our presidents holding three talks in recent months and defining steps to develop our full cooperation,” Lavrov said at the opening of his meeting with the Bolivian Foreign Minister.

After meeting with Bolivian President Luis Arce during the UN General Assembly in September, Lavrov stressed that the two countries have agreed on the “direction of cooperation in humanitarian matters, peaceful atomic energy, trade and the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.”

“It is a great opportunity to discuss our bilateral relations and exchange views on the situation in Latin America,” he said.

Russia also intends to listen to La Paz’s assessment of the bilateral agenda and to discuss the two countries’ cooperation at the UN.

Mayta stressed to his counterpart that, “it is in difficult times that we know who are truly our friends and in this complicated pandemic time, the first country we were able to agree on anti-Covid vaccine supply was Russia with the Sputnik V.” “I want to say that now Bolivia has a supply of vaccines of different manufacturers, but our people have always preferred to be vaccinated with Sputnik V,” he said. “When the Sputnik V was delivered, there was a long waiting list, a long line of people,” he added.

The Bolivian Foreign Minister stressed that “in these difficult times our relations have been strengthened and we have a rich bilateral agenda.” “We hope that in the multilateral scenario we may also continue to share positions, the same viewpoint,” he added.