MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. The West is trying to create security challenges for Russia in the South Caucasus and Central Asia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said on Thursday.
"What the West is pursuing nowadays using Ukraine, the Kiev regime, and how it is trying to generate security challenges for us [Russia] in the South Caucasus and even in Central Asia, suggests that relations with these countries, and above all within the framework of integration associations, are definitely critically important for us," he said at a presentation of the report "Russia and Neighbors: Mutual Responsibility and Joint Development" by the Valdai International Discussion Club.
Galuzin pointed out that Russia is developing a full range of economic ties with the former states of the Soviet Union.
"It will be enough as an example to take a look at such an important project as the international North-South transport corridor, which we are developing jointly with our partners," he added.