“No state should ensure its security at the expense of the other”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called on the EU to join Russia and the United States for discussions on assessing missile threats.
Lavrov made the statement in Brussels, while attending the permanent partnership council between Russia and the EU.
“We welcomed the change of US strategy regarding the installation of the missile shield in Europe, and are currently working closely with our US partners in order to understand their future plans on this issue,” Lavrov has said.
“But,” he continued “we think this topic should also involve our European Partners as well."
“These plans do not cancel out the necessity of talks on Euro-Atlantic collective security – someting that would guarantee that no state ensures its security at the expense of the security of other states,” Lavrov added.
Partnership and cooperation agreement
The sides also discussed the new fundamental agreement between Russia and the EU.
“The negotiators are moving on to harmonizing the concrete wording, and we agreed today to encourage the negotiators to look for compromise formulas and solutions based on a balance of interests,” Lavrov said after a meeting, as quoted by RIA Novosti.
Previously, the Russia-EU agreement was set to expire in late 2007, but was automatically extended and remains in effect. In early October, the sixth round of talks on the new agreement took place in Brussels.
Energy security
Gas and energy security were also discussed at the meeting. On this matter, Sergey Lavrov said Russia would fulfill all obligations to supply gas to Europe in compliance with signed contracts.“Gas will be supplied in full,” ITAR-TASS quoted the Foreign Minister as saying. “The main thing is that it runs through the territories of transit countries.”
The Russian foreign minister stressed that problems related to gas transit should be solved with transit countries and expressed Russia’s willingness to help them in searching for mutually acceptable solutions.
Lavrov emphasized that having European monitors stationed on the Ukrainian border may help make transit uninterrupted.
“From the very beginning Russia called for creating early warning systems with the participation of transit countries because it is transit states that hampered the process,” Lavrov said.
“We hope that everyone takes a lesson from these difficulties,” he added. “We hope that this year all measures will be taken to prevent this. Our Ukrainian partners pledge to do this. But we consider it important that the EU also takes measures to ensure uninterrupted supply of gas.”
Common history and misinterpretation
The Russian Foreign Minister also called for preventing the falsification of history, in particular of the outcome of World War II.
“This is our common history that is recorded in the documents of the Nuremberg War Crime Trials and the UN Charter,” Lavrov said. “Historians should deal with history. We should create all conditions for them to work objectively without any politicization.”
The Foreign Minister noted that the history of Europe is filled with tragedies, and that Russia took part in many tragic events in the history of Europe.
“But we should learn the lessons from these events in order not to repeat them,” Lavrov said.
