Rex Tillerson’s criticism of China’s policy in Africa is not exactly appropriate, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He also slammed the US for interfering in other countries’ affairs, pursuing neo-imperialist ambitions.
Lavrov’s statements came on Thursday after he met with Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare.
I didn’t know that [US Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson is a specialist in Chinese-American relations,”Lavrov said. He added that “it’s not exactly appropriate” for Tillerson to speak about Africa’s relations with other countries, while a guest, especially in such “a negative way.”
Earlier on Thursday, Tillerson urged African countries to carefully weigh the benefits of Chinese loans at a news conference in the Ethiopian capital during his first diplomatic trip to the continent. “We are not in any way attempting to keep Chinese dollars from Africa,”he said.
By interfering into internal affairs of other counties, the US seems to pursue “neo-imperialist”ambitions, according to Lavrov. “We don’t share such an approach. I consider it ‘neo-imperialist’. And we will never pursue such policies,” he added.
He added that Russia “has never interfered in other countries’ affairs, despite Washington and other Western countries claiming the contrary on a daily basis.” He stressed, though, that “not a single fact of this has been presented.”
In the meantime, Lavrov denied the US State Department’s claims about absence of US-Russia discussions on his possible meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“I didn’t want to make a comment on this topic, but today the US State Department stated that there have been no discussions of our possible meeting with [Tillerson]. I can say that this is untrue,” he said, speaking at a press conference in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
