Lavrov sums up outgoing diplomatic year

 Lavrov sums up outgoing diplomatic year

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a press conference today, at which he summarized the main results of the outgoing diplomatic year.

The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that last year was difficult. The minister pointed to major terrorist attacks committed in 2015.

According to him, one of the key moments in 2015 was the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the formation of a broad international coalition against terrorism under the auspices of the UN, TASS reports.

"The Russian Aerospace Forces' operations, following the Syrian government's request, have really helped to change the situation in this country and helped to limit the territory under the terrorists' control. It became clear who is supporting or helping the terrorists, who is fighting against them or using them for unilateral egotistical purposes," Lavrov stressed.

"Our active participation in the anti-terror struggle has contributed to the passing of a number of important resolutions by the UN Security Council aimed at curbing terrorist financing and the phenomenon of foreign terrorist gunmen. We are seeking their scrupulous implementation and honest and detailed reports of the UN Secretariat on who is meeting their commitments on these important documents and how," the minister stressed.

Moscow will take into account the strengthening of the military capabilities of NATO near the borders of the Russian Federation and considers such steps to be shortsighted, Sergei Lavrov said.

"The situation in the world economy remained unstable, we observed attempts to ensure sides' interests at the expense of others and create closed economic unions," he said.

According to Lavrov, Russia will encourage Ukrainians to restore national accord.

"The decision was made to continue this work [on implementing the Minsk Agreements] this year, the tasks remain unchanged: we will demand strict implementation of additional agreements and efforts made by the leaders of the ‘Normandy Quartet’," he said. "We support an exclusively peaceful settlement. We will encourage Ukrainians to restore national accord," the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry noted.

The main challenge for Russia this year is to establish a democratic and fair international system, but Russia can't achieve it on its own. 

Lavrov said that Russia has good relations with Canada, although the last two years were a time of missed opportunities. But taking into account the comments of the new Canadian government, Russia expects to improve relations.

The minister said that he would not characterize relations with Germany as being in a crisis or in a gridlock. 

"Under these conditions, Russia sought to be active as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. We have acted, not only defending our national interests, but also realizing our responsibility for the situation in the world," Sergey Lavrov noted.

Lavrov believes that Russia must be pragmatic and think about its national interests, then the results will be positive. According to him, one of the examples of the above statement is the decision to lay down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. "The Nord Stream-2 project is a purely commercial project, profitable for both Russia and the EU," he stressed.

The minister stressed that Russia is not interested in the weakening or splitting of the European Union, but it cannot but see what’s happening. Lavrov also expressed hope that Germany will be able to overcome the crisis caused by the influx of migrants "without significant losses."

Talking about the war in Syria, the minister said that Russia and the United States weren't involved in the formation of the Syrian opposition delegation, adding that the decision on Kurdish participation in the inter-Syrian talks should be taken by United Nations' Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura and Russia will not veto it.

The minister also touched on the Korean nuclear issue. "Moscow believes that it is possible to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula,"  the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

"We are currently in consultations with the Americans, our Chinese partners, as well as with representatives from the Republic of Korea and Japan on what occurred. We are unsure that this was the testing of a hydrogen bomb," the minister said.

"Russia and China urged to resume talks on Korean peninsular denuclearization with the participation of the DPRK," the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.

Lavrov has denied media reports that the former head of the Main Intelligence Directorate offered Assad to resign. "Russia has neither offered nor received a request for asylum from the Syrian president," Lavrov said.

Ukraine is unreliable as a transit route for exporting Russian gas to Europe, and the EU understands the necessity of direct deliveries, the Foreign Minister said. "We could not wait for a change of mood against the South Stream in Brussels, so we started to look for an alternative, because Europe needs Russian gas and Ukraine is unreliable as a transit route," Sergey Lavrov stressed at a press conference.

Russia supports the idea of normal relations with Georgia, the Georgian people shouldn't pay for the mistakes made by Saakashvili, he said.

"Bilateral relations between Russia and Georgia is out of the 'deep freeze'. The Georgian Foreign Minister is open to contacts. Moscow has information that Daesh militants are using Georgia's Pankisi Gorge for training," Lavrov said.

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