Gateway 2 Russia, Russia
March 29 2005

Russian minister says CIS countries themselves need to decide on
integration

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the countries of
the post-Soviet space should decide on their desire for integration.
“We do not want to drag anyone into anything, we want to understand
their interests. If they are interested, let us work,” Lavrov said at
the presentation of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ International
Economic and Political Studies Institute’s Integration Problems
Centre in Moscow on Monday [28 March].
“I think we will be stronger if we are together,” Lavrov said. “But
we will be stronger not as a Russia that boasts its strength, but as
respected states with respect for each other,” Lavrov said.
“I would include GUUAM [Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan,
Moldova] in the essence of these processes,” he said. Lavrov said
that those who think integration will begin after all the minor
issues between CIS countries are resolved are wrong. “Integration
will begin only if each of us decides whether we need it,” Lavrov
said.
He said there is a mistaken opinion in CIS countries that only Russia
is interested in the integration process. “Maybe some aspects of
flirting with the West are connected to this,” Lavrov said.
He noted that when President Vladimir Putin recently called the CIS a
mechanism for “civilized divorce”, “he did not mean that this was its
only purpose and there were not any others”. “He was simply comparing
the reasons for setting up the CIS and the EU and a ‘civilized
divorce’ certainly does not rule out integration but makes it
possible to intensify it,” Lavrov said.
He said the countries of the post-Soviet space should “respect each
other and work on equitable terms and on conditions of market
relations”. “I think there will be mutual benefit,” Lavrov said.
Talking about Russian-Ukrainian relations, Lavrov noted that several
issues related to the Black Sea fleet’s stay in the Crimea remain,
regardless of the fact that a base agreement on this has been signed.
“There is a base agreement, but there is no definite agreement that
states we can replace our ships there,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov also noted that Moscow deems unilateral concessions by Russia
as unacceptable in the process of integration. “I think that
integration is not only in the interest of peoples but also of
states,” the minister said.
“Individually or by joining organizations that have been set up
before us we will not achieve a respected place in the new world,”
Lavrov thought.
In his view, the establishment of the Union State of Russia and
Belarus, the functioning of the EAEC [Eurasian Economic Community]
and the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization comprising
Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and
Kyrgyzstan],”speaks of the necessity of integration”.