Russia and the world – 2015

Yesterday Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, summed up the results of the work of Russian diplomats in 2015. According to him, conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Ukraine and Africa created a "crisis landscape" which was further aggravated by the risks of interfaith tensions and deepening inter-civilisational rifts, which are extremely dangerous for our entire civilization, Lavrov thinks.

“These events were unfolding amid an unprecedented surge in the threat of terrorism. ISIS, which declared itself a state, and other extremist groups established their control over large swathes of land in Syria and Iraq, and sought, and in many cases succeeded, to gain a foothold in other countries, particularly Libya, Afghanistan, and some sub-Saharan countries. We have witnessed terrible, inhuman terrorist attacks against citizens of Russia, countries of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United States and Asia, some of which forced large masses of people to leave their homes for other countries, including the European Union. As you may be aware, the terrorists openly declare their plans to establish a "caliphate" from Portugal to Pakistan. This is a real threat not only to regional, but also global security,” the Foreign Minister believes.

He stated that in these circumstances Russia sought to be active, both as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and as one of the world’s largest states pursuing an active foreign policy. It acted not only in order to uphold its national interests, but also while being cognizant of its responsibility for the unfolding international situation.

The Foreign Ministry’s efforts focused on promoting President Putin’s initiative to form a broad-based anti-terrorist coalition in accordance with international law and under the aegis of the UN. “In response to the Syrian government’s request, Russia’s Aerospace Forces helped to turn around the situation in that country by reducing the territory controlled by terrorists. In doing so, we were able to get a much clearer picture of what was happening there. It became clear who was actually fighting the terrorists, and who was acting as their accomplices and in fact using them to promote their selfish interests,” Lavrov said.

According to him, Russia’s active participation in fighting terrorists contributed to the adoption of a number of important UN Security Council resolutions aimed at preventing the financing of terrorism and ending the phenomenon of terrorists recruited from abroad.

The Foreign Ministry understands that defeating terrorism exclusively by military means is impossible. “We must combine military actions and political processes to settle the conflicts, also adopting measures aimed at preventing the use of economic infrastructure seized by terrorists, as ISIS did in Iraq and Syria, where it supplied contraband oil and other commodities to Turkey for further sale. It is also important to think about the economic recovery of the countries in question after the terrorist threat has been dealt with, as well as to counter extremist ideology.”

The Foreign Ministry proceeds from the premise that, in general, in the 21st century, multilateral cooperation can only be based on genuine equality, mutual consideration for each other’s interests and joint efforts for common goals. These principles form the foundation for the performance of integration associations in the post-Soviet space, including the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, the Eurasian Economic Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The same principles underlie such promising formats as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which held their summits in Ufa last July.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs says that in developing integration processes in the post-Soviet space Moscow does not set them against other integration efforts: “We are ready to work on harmonizing integration processes and building bridges, particularly between Europe, Eurasia and the Asia-Pacific Region (APR). Last year the EAEU and Vietnam signed an important agreement on a free trade area and many states (there are dozens of them) are interested in signing similar agreements. An agreement in principle was reached on integrating EAEU activities with China’s project of the Silk Road Economic Belt, which provides very broad opportunities for pooling efforts.”

Lavrov states that Moscow is strengthening strategic partnership with China, India, Vietnam and other Asia-Pacific countries. More prospects for cooperation are opened by President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to start, in cooperation with our EAEU partners, consultations with the SCO members and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the possibility of establishing a potential economic partnership. This issue will be on the agenda of the Russia-ASEAN summit to be held in Sochi in May to mark the 20th anniversary of our relations.