MILAN, October 16. /TASS/. Credibility gap in international relations is fraught with the expansion of crisis zones across the globe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.
“Attempts are still persisting to interpret accord as sharing one’s own point of view by all, as a right to ignore legitimate interests of partners and dictate own rules in economy, politics, finance and trade. All this leads to bigger chaos in international relations, to expanding crisis zones, including vast territories in the Middle East and North Africa, and now in Ukraine,” Lavrov said at a second plenary session of the tenth Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit.
“Today, the degree of mutual dependence of Europe and Asia, as of all other regions, is such that the future of the entire humankind depends on our ability to establish equal productive partnership,” he said. “On the background of ongoing profound structural changes in the world, we see a dangerous growth of credibility gap in international relations, the erosion of the culture of searches for compromises and mutually acceptable solutions that can be the basis for efficient joint efforts.”
“Russia, as the only ASEM member country located both in Europe and Asia, consistently stands for the start of a serious work on strengthening mechanisms of global governance,” Lavrov said. “It should be based on international law, principles of equal and indivisible security and mutual account of interests. Only this way we will be able to avoid further expansion of conflict both in Europe and in the Asia Pacific region. We have been consistently speaking in favour of harmonizing integration processes in Europe, Eurasia, and the Asia Pacific region. We are ready to use our country’s geographical location, its resource base and human potential for these purposes.”
“Russia will further contribute to the development of practical cooperation between ASEM member states on the basis of balance of interests, including in promoting the global agenda in the area of development after 2015, in boosting the efficiency and better coordination of efforts in the sphere of rapid response, in search for sustainable solutions to the problems of climate change and energy security, in the development mutually respectful dialogue on human rights issues,” the Russian foreign minister pledged.
“An important task in the present-day turbulent world is strengthening moral fundamentals of international relations with a focus on traditional values, which underlay solidarity of the mankind,” Lavrov said. “These issues were addressed at a high-level ASEM conference on inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue that was held in St. Petersburg in July 2014. I would like to thank all participants of this important forum for their active contribution to its success. We are ready to pool efforts with all our ASEM partners to further promote the role of our association in efforts to create a more secure, more democratic, more efficient international system.