Упрощенная HTML-версия
Author : Sergey Lavrov
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
I am pleased to welcome the participants in the First Forum
of Young Diplomats from the CIS countries, Abkhazia and
South Ossetia. I am confident that we will have an interesting
discussion and I hope that you will enrich your knowledge
at its close as a result of the exchange of views, plans and
ideas. Such meetings will be scheduled on a regular basis and
will be a useful venue for young professionals to discuss top-
ical issues of international life and the regional agenda.This
is important because you are our hope and our successors.
The world situation is not getting any easier, but rather be-
coming more complicated; there is an objective process at
work in establishing a new polycentric system of international relations.
In these difficult circumstances, the diplomacy of the Russian Federation is seeking to act in a well-balanced
manner, firmly defending our legitimate national interests, avoiding any confrontation with anyone whatsoever.
The Russian foreign policy doctrine enjoys broad support in Russian society and rests on the key principles
that have evolved over the last two decades and have proven their effectiveness in practice.
Our absolute priority continues to be developing across the board cooperation within the Commonwealth of
Independent States space based on the principles of equality, mutual respect and consideration of each other's
interests. We have recently been able to achieve good results.
As President Putin has said, our strategic goal is to create, in the future, a unified economic and humanitarian
space from Atlantic to Pacific, where all EU countries, the future members of the Eurasian integration process
and other nations located in this area could coexist and cooperate to mutual advantage.Then there would not
be any unnecessary competition or dividing lines, which some of our Western partners are not only trying to
maintain, but are also striving to move closer to Russian borders. Then there would be no imposed false choice
of "either with us or against us."
We have repeatedly told our Western partners about the danger of such an approach. Unfortunately, our warn-
ings have come true in what is happening in Ukraine.
I will say that there can be no one-sided demands, yet our partners are still trying to put them forward - primarily
I mean the United States of America, which generally has a stunning ability to turn everything upside down.
Our Western partners ignored us when we called for tripartite consultations between Russia, the EU and Ukraine
to keep Ukrainian society and economy from being torn apart.
Returning to our business in the CIS, we attach great importance to promoting cooperation with the countries
of the Commonwealth in the most diverse formats. The Free Trade Area Agreement of October 18, 2011 is
an effective instrument for boosting economic and trade cooperation within the CIS space An important chal-
lenge is to increase the effectiveness of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in order to ensure an ade-
quate response to the challenges and threats of our time.
Электронное приложение к журналу «
Международная жизнь
»
International Affairs: Summary№4, 2014
"It Is Time for Our Western Partners to Concede that They Have
no Monopoly on Truth"