PRAVDA, Russia from RIA Novosti
July 9 2004

Russia wants relations with CIS to be more practical

In his interview to Rossiiskaya Gazeta published Friday, Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov promised that Russia would make its
relations with the CIS more practicable and less declarative. “I see
a clear-cut recent tendency toward abandoning slogans in relations
with the CIS nations for the benefit of vitally-important
activities,” said the minister.

In his opinion, the chief priority is to examine all the outstanding
problems with each of the CIS countries in a complex.

“They want our fuels; we want them to level the economic models, to
create favorable conditions for people-to-people contacts and for
business exchanges, to develop joint economic projects and to enable
the CIS countries that are prepared for advanced integration to
progress without being dependent on those who are not yet ready for
such integration,” noted Lavrov.

He claims this logical basis was meant when establishing the CIS and
is reflected in its charter.

“Therefore forming a common economic space (to include Russia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine), developing the Eurasian economic
community (incorporating Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan as well as Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine as observers),
promoting work on the establishment of a Union of Russia and Belarus
as part of a common European economic space are extremely pertinent
for pulling down the barriers that have been artificially erected to
dismember the once single economic organism,” thinks the Russian
foreign minister.

“The necessity of uniting efforts is also caused by matters of
security, protection from common threats, from terrorism and drug
trafficking in our Southern borders, which is the responsibility of
the Collective Security Treaty Organization (Russia, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia),” he added.

Dealing with the presence of the United States in the region, the
minister made a point of Russia’s unwillingness to let the CIS become
an area of confrontation.

“If the U.S. presence helps settle conflicts and thus crush breeding
grounds of terrorism and tensions around Russia with the prospect of
its being surrounded by friendly states, we welcome such
developments. But when the aims of such presence are unclear for us,
we seek answers to our questions,” said Lavrov.