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I would like to make it clear to all: our country will continue to actively defend the rights
of Russians, our compatriots abroad, using the entire range of available means - from po-
litical and economic to operations under international humanitarian law and the right of
self-defense.
I would like to stress that what happened in Ukraine was the climax of the negative ten-
dencies in international affairs that had been building up for years. We have long been
warning about this, and unfortunately, our predictions came true.
Nevertheless, I hope pragmatism will eventually prevail. We need to get rid of ambitions,
of attempts to establish a "world barracks" and arrange everybody by rank, or to impose
single rules of behavior and life, and to finally begin building relations based on equality,
mutual respect and concern for mutual interests. It is time we admit each other's right to
be different, the right of every country to live its own life rather than to be told what to
do by someone else.
Colleagues, in its foreign policy Russia has been consistently proceeding from the notion
that solutions to global and regional conflicts should be sought not through confrontation,
but through cooperation and compromise. We advocate the supremacy of international
law while supporting the UN's leading role.
International law should be mandatory for all and should not be applied selectively to serve
the interests of individual select countries or groups of states, and most importantly, it
should be interpreted consistently. It is impossible to interpret it in one way today, and in
a different way tomorrow to match the political goals of the day.
All of us in Europe need a sort of safety net to make sure that Iraqi, Libyan or Syrian -
and unfortunately, I have to say also Ukrainian - precedents do not become contagious.
We also need to continue strengthening the eastern vector of our diplomacy, to more in-
tensively use the impressive potential of the Asia-Pacific region in the interests of the fur-
ther development of our country, primarily, of course, of Siberia and the Far East. We
should continue to direct Russia's policy in Asia and the Pacific at maintaining the security
of our eastern borders and at supporting peace and stability in the region.
I also ask the Government to speed up the decision on providing additional guarantees
for personnel from other agencies and administrative and technical personnel working at
Russian missions abroad, especially in situations where there are terrorist threats.
The Foreign Ministry has raised the question of giving diplomatic service the official legal
status as a special type of civil service in Russia. We will examine this proposal.
This concludes my opening remarks.
I thank the members of the media for the attention they have given our work.
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