SOCHI, October 15. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on countries not to waste time and effort on rivalry but establish cooperation instead.

"We must stop looking at each other as rivals. I don’t know how it is possible at the interstate level but at least we must try," he said on Sunday at a meeting with participants in the World Festival of Youth and Students. "We must try to look at each other as partners."

According to Putin, instead of pooling efforts to resolve common problems, countries waste resources on things that are not important. "We waste resource on rivalry, seeking to gain an upper hand in it," he said. "But it rarely yields a positive result for all, both the winners and the losers."

"These are very delicate things. Maybe it is a utopia as the nature is filled with the spirit of rivalry all through and entire society is filled with the spirit of rivalry but, at least we should try not to let this rivalry heat up into hatred, the more so into warfare," the Russian leader said, adding that it is necessary to "strengthen the vector of cooperation in the search for solutions to common tasks and problems.".