Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said Russia and Bangladesh were moving fast to use national currencies for trade payments.
After a bilateral meeting with his Bangladesh counterpart, Dr AK Abdul Momen, in Dhaka, he added that the construction of the Rooppur Power Plant would be finished on time.
"Today, we have noted that the first batch of nuclear fuel will arrive in Bangladesh in October," he said at a joint briefing at Hotel InterContinental in Dhaka.
Lavrov arrived in Dhaka on Thursday, marking the first Bangladesh visit by a Russian foreign minister.
He will leave Dhaka for New Delhi on Friday after paying a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and paying his respects to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Dhanmondi 32.
Momen recalled Russia's role during Bangladesh’s Liberation War and post-war rehabilitation with gratitude.
He said Bangladesh had also requested Russia's peaceful settlement of any war and conflict, and reiterated Bangladesh's position of not taking any sides and pursuing its foreign policy of “friendship to all, malice to none."
"We maintain a very balanced foreign policy. We follow our own interests, and until today, we have maintained a very independent policy. Our objective is to have all issues resolved through dialogue and discussion. We do not want war," he added.
The visit comes at a time when Western countries have kept Russia under pressure over the Ukraine invasion. Due to sanctions, Russian ships could not carry goods for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, and there were obstacles to paying bills in dollars.
Even on the day of his arrival in Bangladesh prior to joining the G20 summit in New Delhi, 14 heads of Western diplomatic missions in Dhaka wrote an opinion piece in a local daily against Russia, titled "Russia’s war in Ukraine is reversing hard-won development gains and destroying global food security."
US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken visited Kyiv on September 6, where he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba to underscore unwavering US support for Ukraine’s defence of its sovereign territory and the people of Ukraine against Russia’s ongoing aggression, a decision that the US embassy in Dhaka shared with the media just before the joint briefing.
Lavrov said Moscow appreciated "the fact that despite pressure exerted on Bangladesh by the US and its allies, our Bangladesh friends are guided exclusively by their national interest in foreign policy."
He called the US and its allies’ Indo-Pacific strategy not only a drive to deter China and isolate Russia in the region but also an "expansionist drive" on the part of Nato.
"The attempts to interfere will not stop. On the contrary, the interference will intensify," he said, adding that Russia would work with its partners in the region to prevent such Western interference.
He said Bangladesh is a "good and long-lasting" partner of Russia in South Asia. Bangladesh is Russia’s second-largest trading partner in South Asia after India.
"We have agreed to increase our trade and investment," he said at the bilateral meeting.
"The Rooppur plant is the signature project in our relationship. Today we have noted that the project is being carried out in a consistent manner according to schedule."
He said the Russian company Gazprom had drilled 20 gas fields in Bangladesh and was ready to continue to do so. He said Moscow had proposed supplying LNG, wheat and fertilizer to Bangladesh.
To discuss all those issues, he stressed establishing a permanent mechanism for regular contact, instead of annual discussions.
On the Rohingya issue, he said, Russia supported continued negotiations between Bangladesh and Myanmar to resolve the crisis.
"We believe that outside actors should limit themselves to simply raising the favourable conditions for finding mutually acceptable solutions. This is exactly what Russia is doing, and we will continue to do so."
He said due to Western sanctions, supply chains had been disrupted.
In his comments, Momen said he and his Russian counterpart had discussed such issues as Rohingya, trade and investment, among others. He also said Russia had offered Bangladesh LNG, chloride and many other things. He said Bangladesh had shown interest in joining the economic bloc of Eurasian countries.
To that, he said, the Russian side had replied that Moscow would need permission from other members, particularly from Kazakhstan.
"He was very sympathetic to our issues," he said, referring to the Russian foreign minister.