MOSCOW, September 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia is open for any forms of partnership if work is based on the basis of equality, mutual respect and benefit, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with St. Petersburg’s Channel 5 on Sunday.
“Clearly, in our interests we focus on how our people live,” the foreign minister said. “Our interest is to have our people live as good as possible. For that, we should develop the economy, we should have peaceful conditions and foreign partners to implement mutually advantageous projects raising the economy and the social sphere.”
“We are open for any forms of partnership if we realise the work is based on equality, mutual respect and benefit,” Lavrov said. “This is exactly how we structure our relations with very many countries - with China, India, with members of BRICS and SCO.”
“We are also involved in very promising integration projects in the FSU space - the Eurasian Economic Union is being organised, and new countries demonstrate interest in it, clearly, there will be new members,” he said. “The process will be time-consuming, but I am convinced that first results of our integration will be evident shortly.”
“The Eurasian Economic Union’s predecessor - the Customs Union - has resulted in better economic results in the member countries.”
This year, Russia’s president and the foreign minister have visited Latin American countries, he said.
“Quite recently I visited Africa, which has enormous deposits of natural resources, but various conflicts would not let developing them,” Lavrov said. “Everybody is interested in mutually advantageous partnership, in attracting Russian businesses, in implementation of joint projects.