US more often deceives than implements its promises: Lavrov

MOSCOW

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized the US on Tuesday, calling it untrustworthy and unreliable.

“It is well known that the US may deceive at any moment, and much more often it deceives than implements its own promises and obligations," Lavrov said at a joint press conference in Caracas with his Venezuelan counterpart Yvan Gil when asked about US promises to improve relations with Venezuela if it joins anti-Russian sanctions.

Lavrov said he informed Gil about the situation in Ukraine, noting that the conflict has to be resolved based on the principle of indivisibility of security.

For his part, Gil said Caracas does not accept unilateral sanctions and that Venezuela also suffers from them.

"The US constantly attacks us and is trying to suffocate our economy. The US is constantly speaking about improvement of relations, but we haven't seen any alleviation of sanctions," he said.

Gil stressed that all sanctions, both US and European, have to be lifted and until then, Venezuela cannot speak about normalization with Western countries.

He noted that Moscow and Caracas are developing an alternative to SWIFT, the system that enables global financial transactions, in order to bypass Western sanctions.

Lavrov arrived in Caracas from Brazil earlier Tuesday as part of his Latin American tour from April 17-21. He also plans to visit Nicaragua and Cuba.