MOSCOW, December 19. /ITAR-TASS/ - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday thanked the U.S. State Department, the European Commission and the Chinese authorities for joint efforts to resolve the key problems of world security as he spoke at the annual “grand” news conference attended by more than 1,300 Russian and foreign journalists.
“Russia made a substantial contribution to solving urgent and long-standing problems linked to Syria and Iran’s nuclear programme. But those results would have been impossible without common efforts exerted by the United States, the Europeans and our Chinese friends,” Putin noted.
The Russian president praised not only Russian diplomats but also the U.S administration for its pragmatic approach, which helped settling Iran’s nuclear problem.
“We in Russia can be proud of our international actions. Our position rests on the basic principles of international law. We will continue working further in cooperation with our partners. We will work intensively with account taken of the United Nations key role. Our joint efforts have seriously improved the image of this organization,” Putin went on to say.
“The Russian president has felt confident in recent months. That is the reason behind his benevolent remarks. He has achieved everything that he wanted in the international arena,” Fyodor Lukyanov, the head of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy and Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal, said in an interview with Itar-Tass.
“This is also true of Russia’s stance on the Middle East problems, including Iran’s nuclear programme, destruction of chemical weapons in Syria and the preparation of the Geneva agreements,” Lukyanov explained.
“It can be felt that the president is pleased with the resumption of cooperation with Ukraine, which refuse to sign an association agreement with the European Union,” Lukyanov went on to say.
The political scientist believes that the outgoing year has seen a return of the Russian diplomacy as a major force in international politics. Lukyanov assumed that for the first time since the 1990s, Russia and the United States were trying to resolve such large-scale diplomatic tasks. That is why the Russian president gave such a positive assessment of their joint work, Lukyanov said.
“A model of reaction by the world community to future inter-state conflicts will largely depend on how the Syrian crisis is going to be resolved. In Syria’s case, calls to act as usual could be heard straight from the beginning: that is to interfere in the conflict, punish the autocratic ruler and restore law and order. The Russian proposal produced an effect because it offered a solution to a dilemma: how to avoid a war without losing face. Suddenly, it turned out that diplomacy was needed,” Lukyanov went on to say.
The expert believes that the incoming era will see a revival of big diplomacy. “It is symbolic that Moscow and Washington are again standing at the wellspring of a new era despite the fact that a bi-polar world setup has long been a thing of the past.
“Russia and the United States still have no equals when it is necessary to combine diplomatic art with readiness to implement agreements. It turns out that things are again developing along the Kremlin-White House axis. But unlike in the old day, Russia and the United States will be unable to solve everything for others,” Lukyanov stressed.
“When the Russian president fails to achieve the assigned tasks, he feels nervous. If Russia makes progress in foreign policy, as it was the case this year, the head of state is democratic and greathearted. Putin does not pedal Russia’s achievements and does not try to pinprick his foreign partners. He is riding a high horse, and he certainly irradiated success during his ‘grand’ news conference,” Fyodor Lukyanov emphasized.
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