РУССКИЙ
18:16 20.10.2026 •
Photo: MFA
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions at a news conference following the 9th Joint Ministerial Meeting of the Russia-GCC Strategic Dialogue held jointly with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani and GCC Secretary-General Jasem Albudaiwi/
Manama, October 18, 2026
Ladies and gentlemen,
Colleagues,
I would like to begin by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to our Bahraini friends for their traditional hospitality and the excellent organisation of our work. I would also like to extend special thanks for arranging the meeting with His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, which took place just a short while ago and lasted about an hour. We reaffirmed our firm commitment to continuing close and trust-based partnership across all areas. The foundations of this partnership were laid during the five previous meetings at the top level, as well as meetings between ministers and representatives of the governing bodies of our two countries.
My counterpart and friend and I held our most recent consultations in June. We hold these consultations regularly. Bahrain also participates at a very high level in various forums every year, including the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Our intergovernmental commission is active, and cultural and humanitarian ties are developing well. Earlier this year, Bahrain successfully hosted the Russian Seasons, which is a series of cultural events that enjoy considerable popularity in many countries. Next year, we plan to support our Bahraini friends in organising Bahraini Culture Days in Russia.
His Majesty and I also discussed plans for future contacts, including at the top and high levels.
The 9th Ministerial Meeting of the Russia-GCC Strategic Dialogue, which took place earlier today, was a special occasion because this year marks its 15th anniversary. The first dialogue in this format was held in Abu Dhabi 15 years ago.
We paid special attention to reviewing our relations and their prospects. We discussed our trade and economic ties and expressed support for realising the considerable potential for cooperation in areas such as the manufacturing industry, agriculture, transport, education, and tourism. Tourism contacts got a boost from four of the six GCC member states signing visa-free travel agreements with the Russian Federation covering holders of all types of passports. We hope that the two remaining members of the council will join these arrangements as well.
We noted a steady growth in our trade with the GCC countries. Last year, our trade was up by 45 percent to nearly $19 billion. We share the view that we can do much better. Bilateral intergovernmental commissions on trade and economic cooperation, which Russia has established with each of the six member states, play a particularly important role.
In addition to bilateral mechanisms, there is also a multilateral Joint Action Plan on Trade, Economic, and Investment Cooperation, which was signed in 2023 for a five-year period through 2028. In addition to these formats, we closely interact on other platforms within the Strategic Dialogue, including OPEC+ and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. The next Gas Exporting Countries Forum will take place in Moscow next week. We hope that the leaders of the Gulf countries who received our invitations will be able to attend.
Our cooperation extends to universal international organisations, such as the UN. Bahrain currently holds a position of a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. We work closely together on what are, frankly, challenging issues arising from the developments unfolding in various regions of the world, particularly the Gulf region, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Red Sea. We approach these discussions from a common standpoint that includes respect for international law and for the principles of the UN Charter, not selectively, as some do, but understood as an indivisible and interdependent whole. We advocate approaches that give priority to addressing underlying causes of every conflict.
We used this perspective to review the situation in the region. We advocate unconditional respect for existing agreements. Unfortunately, I can’t say our Western colleagues do. Nevertheless, it is essential to remove the underlying causes of the developments in and around the Strait of Hormuz, including by implementing the agreements between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran under what is known as the Islamabad Memorandum, which we all welcomed. We believe this memorandum contains everything that is necessary to take the situation away from where it is now and is teetering on the brink of a renewed full-scale war, and return it to a political and diplomatic track.
We welcome the efforts of international and regional mediators from the Gulf countries, among others, who are seeking to help make this process sustainable and prevent a slide into yet another open confrontation.
We also discussed the deteriorating situation in the southern Arabian Peninsula. My colleague has mentioned the situation in the Republic of Yemen earlier. Alongside our GCC partners, we advocate a political and diplomatic solution to this crisis. We believe that all the necessary conditions are in place, including the 2023 roadmap developed at the initiative of Saudi Arabia.
We spoke in favour of taking a broader approach to addressing security issues in the region. We believe it is important to work towards establishing inclusive security architecture that would encompass all the Gulf countries - the Arab states and the Islamic Republic of Iran - as well as their immediate neighbours, particularly Iraq and Jordan. External actors that are guided not by their own unilateral geopolitical designs, but above all by the interests of the countries of the region should support this process.
Russia has been promoting this kind of regional peace and security architecture for decades. I am referring to our Concept of Collective Security in the Persian Gulf Region. We are ready to harmonise it with other existing initiatives, including those put forward by the GCC in 2023, the People’s Republic of China, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. At some point, it would make sense, following preliminary expert-level consultations, to consider convening a forum to launch the development of what we firmly believe is much-needed security architecture for all the countries concerned.
We discussed the Palestinian issue at length. Everyone is deeply concerned by the attempts to pull the plug on the creation of a Palestinian state. Both we and our GCC partners adamantly reject this approach. A colleague of mine just reaffirmed our commitment to UN decisions on the establishment of a Palestinian state within the internationally agreed parameters. Unfortunately, at this point, we are far from achieving this goal.
There have been attempts to move incrementally. This was one of the reasons why we agreed to the adoption, by the UN Security Council in 2025, of a resolution supporting President Donald Trump’s plan for the Gaza Strip. Our Chinese friends and we had doubts as to whether this was a plausible approach, since it was entirely detached from the goal of establishing a Palestinian state. However, taking into account the request of the Palestinians themselves, we did not oppose the resolution. A year has passed, and, unfortunately, President Trump’s plan remains on paper. The provisions set out in that resolution and in President Trump’s plan regarding how the Gaza Strip is to be administered are not being respected. In fact, the exact opposite is happening. So, we agreed today to continue working together at the UN to secure justice for the Palestinian people.
We discussed various aspects of the situation in Syria, Libya, Lebanon, and Sudan as well. All these countries face difficulties that, in one way or another, affect the interests of our GCC friends. We advocate the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions concerning these conflicts, of which there is more than one in each case. There is much criticism of the UN these days claiming that the permanent members of the Security Council are failing to fulfil their duties and do not feel responsible for ensuring that the Council operates smoothly and effectively and delivers results. Here are some examples to back it up: resolutions exist on every issue I just mentioned, yet the overwhelming majority of them remain on paper.
The same happened with Resolution 2202, which was adopted in 2015 and unanimously approved the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements on Ukraine, but was subsequently ignored and sabotaged. We mentioned this today as well. Even the countries that had guaranteed the Minsk Agreements - France and Germany - proudly declared several years after the fact that they had never intended to implement them. This is the main cause of the UN Security Council’s ineffectiveness. Many believe they can agree to a compromise now and simply disregard it later. That is precisely what happens. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this is how the West behaves.
We thanked our colleagues for their balanced and objective position on Ukraine. We briefed them on the latest developments and expressed particular appreciation for the efforts of a number of Gulf countries, which have been quietly and pragmatically, without seeking publicity, acting as mediators in resolving a range of humanitarian issues, including the reunification of children with their families, exchanges of prisoners of war, and the return of the bodies.
In accordance with the rotation principle, the next meeting of the Strategic Dialogue will be held in the Russian Federation. Next year, Saudi Arabia will assume chairmanship to replace Bahrain in this position.
In conjunction with our friends, we will get busy with preparations for the next ministerial meeting and do our best to extend hospitality no less warm than the kind we received here.
Question (retranslated from Arabic): Bahrain has declined to take part in joint GCC events with Iran. Is it possible that, if the attendant circumstances were to change or evolve, this meeting could still be held? This could include the participation of the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation. What role could Russia play in light of the attacks to which the Gulf countries are being subjected and the navigation problems in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Strait of Hormuz?
Sergey Lavrov: That is absolutely the right approach, and I subscribe to it fully and without reservations: if the situation is to return to normal, freedom of navigation must be fully ensured, as it was before February 28 of this year. Until February 28, that freedom was absolute, without any demand for payment, and the situation was entirely normal. Naturally, one cannot fail to take into account how all this came about.
My friend spoke of the need “for an end to attacks, for mutual respect based on the recognition of each other’s sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs, and for the settlement of all disputes by peaceful means rather than through the use of armed force.” After all, is this not precisely what the US and Israel have done? If I have misconstrued the situation and someone can tell me that the actions listed are not connected with those states, then it is very hard to argue the point.
The final principle is settlement by peaceful means, not through the use of force, and without interference in internal affairs. US President Donald Trump has openly stated that they have eliminated the entire leadership of Iran. A second leadership, he claims, was appointed in Iran – and that one, too, he alleges, the US eliminated. Now there is a third leadership in place. The Americans do not really seem to understand who is doing what over there, or who decides what. This is probably not the approach that can help a distant region seek agreements based on mutual respect and international law. We are fully in favour of such agreements.
This convinces us yet again of the need, in any conflict, to focus on the root causes and not to allow certain manipulators to do what they do best – seize on some single topic or outward manifestation and, without delving into the reasons for its emergence, artificially direct all the attention of the international community, through the media or UN resolutions, to this one aspect alone of a deep and serious crisis. The aspect chosen is the one that makes it possible to channel all the attention of the international community towards the country that did not unleash the war. We discussed this in detail today.
I believe there was a very useful discussion during the GCC meeting. Let me remind you that the Council itself, a few years ago, outlined a vision for the security architecture in this region. We have our own concept. China has its own. Iran has the Hormuz Initiative, which was formulated several years ago but received no attention. It would have been highly beneficial to start such a dialogue then, taking all these ideas into account, so that we could sit down together at a table and exchange assessments without any prior commitments, predetermined conclusions or agreements.
We have held such a dialogue in Moscow several times at the level of political scientists, experts and academics. It was very useful. I think that, as one of the conclusions to be drawn from the present regrettable situation, we will propose resuming such a dialogue. At the very least, it was in high demand within the academic community of the countries of the region.
Question: I have a question about energy security. Was this topic addressed comprehensively during the talks and meetings, including the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, the Kiev regime’s strikes on civilian infrastructure and the diesel deal between Moscow and Washington?
Sergey Lavrov: The diesel deal between Moscow and Washington is a matter that concerns Moscow and Washington. If the European Union views this as a betrayal of Ukraine, while Vladimir Zelensky himself claims that the issue of Russian diesel exports must be cleared through him because only he can grant permission, that is no longer a matter of energy security but of self-promotion and yet another political circus. The main thing is to ensure nobody forgets he exists, and that he asked them the day before for tens of billions more, and they have still not replied.
Energy security is an issue that unites us all in the material sphere, alongside other common approaches. We cooperate, as I have already noted, within OPEC+ and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, whose next summit will be held in Moscow on October 25–27 of this year. President Vladimir Putin will receive the attendees. I am confident that decisions will be taken there that are genuinely aimed at stabilising global markets, and not at causing those markets to collapse for the sake of saving Vladimir Zelensky’s regime, which is what our European colleagues are doing now, including by encouraging the strikes you mentioned on civilian infrastructure and oil refineries. Once again, they are trying to devise some convoluted formulations to the effect that what interests the Ukrainians should not be touched, while keeping their own hands free.
Time and again, even when – in a number of cases, at the suggestion of US President Donald Trump – an understanding was reached between Moscow and Kiev that we needed to move forward, and when there were some understandings about resuming negotiations, the very next day after such optimistic expectations had emerged, Ukraine would invariably perpetrate something utterly unacceptable and abhorrent. Above all, strikes on civilian targets. They deliberately target civilian facilities and peaceful residents.
We can therefore draw only one conclusion: Vladimir Zelensky does not want negotiations. He has already derailed them on more than one occasion, including after December 2019, when the meeting took place in Paris. A decision was reached there on the need to implement the Minsk agreements, including by enshrining the special status of Donbass in Ukraine’s Constitution. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vladimir Zelensky all endorsed it.
They had no intention of following through, however. Vladimir Zelensky likewise broke off the talks held in Istanbul in the summer of 2025. Then there was a trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi. And after that, too, there has been no movement of any kind, and the lack of progress is not of our making.
It is obvious, however, that Vladimir Zelensky does not even want to move towards an agreement. This is evidently because he understands that any agreement acceptable to Russia and the US will mean the end of his regime and of him personally.
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