TERMEZ, March 30. /TASS/. The Eurasian security architecture should be based on key regional blocs, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said at a Russia-Uzbekistan conference organized by the Valdai Discussion Club and the Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies under the Uzbek president.

"We consider especially promising the idea of creating a security architecture in Eurasia based on key Eurasian associations as a broad, open system not aimed against anyone, and as a framework of equal and indivisible security, within which all states would be confident in their security and would not seek to ensure it at the expense of others," he said at the opening of the conference titled "Russia - Uzbekistan: Strategic Partnership in Eurasia".

Unified integration framework

Galuzin noted that it is within this logic that the Greater Eurasian Partnership initiative, proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, was developed. "This concept is today a flagship of Russia’s foreign policy and aligns with the Uzbekistan 2030 strategy," he noted.

According to the deputy foreign minister, Uzbekistan’s strategy envisions merging the economic potential of countries and interstate formats into a "single integration contour through enhancing transport connectivity, linking production and supply chains, financial mechanisms, and removing trade obstacles".

"There is demand for creating such a comprehensive space without dividing lines, and we observe it among our allies and international partners," he added. "The concept is multi-vector in nature and fully reflects the interests and capabilities of Central Asian states and the Global South as a whole," the diplomat said.

Free from external pressure

According to Galuzin, another key component of the Greater Eurasian Partnership is the creation in Eurasia of "a system of relations in which regional states would assume full responsibility for their own security and development".

"Such a system implies removing destabilizing military, political, and economic pressure from external actors," the deputy foreign minister clarified. "Existing regional and subregional structures promoting a positive unifying agenda in both economic integration and security can make a major contribution to implementing the Greater Eurasian Partnership concept," he added.

Galuzin specified that these include the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Union State of Russia and Belarus, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). "In a number of these structures, we participate together with our strategic partner and ally Uzbekistan," he said. "I mean the CIS, the SCO, and the EAEU, where your country has observer status," the diplomat added.