VIENTIANE/Laos, October 11. /TASS/. The final declaration of the 19th East Asia Summit (EAS) could not be adopted due to persistent attempts by the United States and a number of other countries to shift the focus of the document to controversial geopolitical issues, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following his attending the summit.

"The final declaration could not be adopted due to persistent attempts by the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand to politicize this document, to depart from the policy that has been applied at the East Asia Summits for many decades, namely, to prevent saturating the declarations with geopolitical confrontational subjects," the Russian top diplomat said.

Lavrov noted that in recent years, the declarations have laid out practical cooperation in economy, trade, investments, and the humanitarian sphere. "The fact that attempts to saturate these work programs [with politicized subjects] are, needless to say, counterproductive, is obvious to everyone," he stated.

"Last year we adopted an action plan for the East Asia Summits. And during the current event, we made a variety of practical considerations that are aimed at implementing projects in the areas outlined in this joint plan," Lavrov emphasized. "The West has been methodically blocking all these efforts, demanding in turn that we take all responsibility for what is happening in Ukraine, where the US and its allies instigated a coup and have supported the actions of the criminal Kiev regime ever since." "That is probably the main reason. ASEAN countries are well aware that this does not contribute to the development of cooperation in the format of the East Asia Summits," the Russian foreign minister concluded.