MILAN, October 17. /TASS/. The regional cooperation format is the sole alternative to escalating conflicts in the Eurasian space, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

Putin paid special attention to this issue in his speech at a session of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit held behind closed doors on Friday, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“He emphasized that the format of regional cooperation is the sole alternative to negative trends and the desire of some countries to determine the destiny of other states and whole regions on their own,” the spokesman said.

Putin also shared the positive experience of the post-Soviet Customs Union and Eurasian Economic Union with the summit’s participants and spoke about the positive development of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, Russia and South Africa) group of leading emerging market countries, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and other regional formats, which involve Russia’s active participation and can already be characterized “as very useful,” Peskov said.

The growing conflict potential in the Eurasian space causes regret, Putin said. These developments are leading to “collapse of whole regions and deplorable consequences for a whole number of countries,” Peskov quoted Putin as saying.