BERLIN, August 4. /TASS/. Europe needs a new security system that includes Russia, Thuringia Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow said.
"We need a European peace order that includes Russia. All participating states should conclude a non-aggression pact and form a defensive alliance focused on conflict resolution on the European continent," Ramelow said in an interview with Funke Media Group. He clarified that he is not against NATO, but for the reorganization of the European defense system.
"Germany needs a national defense army that lives up to its name. I am therefore strongly in favor of the Bundeswehr (the German armed forces - TASS) being well equipped. But we finally need to think about Europe as a whole, and Russia is also part of that," the politician emphasized.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with leaders of Russian non-profit organizations on July 23 that Russia is convinced that the door to cooperation in Eurasia should remain open for European Union countries. In particular, he recalled the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to whom Moscow, promoting the idea of the Greater Eurasian Partnership, "does not close the doors for any country located on the Eurasian continent." According to Lavrov, EU countries that want to join such cooperation will have to already "enter these processes on the basis of equal rights and on the basis of full respect for the interests of those who began to interact earlier.".