MINSK, October 31. /TASS/. The security conferences in Minsk and Munich are not similar and shouldn’t be viewed as alternatives to each other, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
He made the statement at a news conference following the high-level plenary session of the 2nd Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security.
"As for the comparison with the Munich Security Conference, we are not holding this event (the Minsk conference - TASS) to compete with anyone," he said. "This is just like when [Russian President Vladimir] Putin answered the question in Kazan whether we regard BRICS as a counterweight to NATO or any other Western organizations. He said we are not opposing anyone. We are focusing on the goals that we see in terms of creative interaction with partners who share our approaches."
Lavrov rejected the idea that the events compete with each other.
"These are different things," he said. "For some time now, the Munich conference has been an invitation-only organization, where they invite a select few, only those who suck up to Western leaders, while the Minsk conference is, on the contrary, open to participation of any country.".