Interfax's Interview

“One cannot help mentioning the unfavorable state of affairs in the disarmament sphere. We will try to improve the situation, including through diplomatic means,” Lavrov said.

“Negative phenomena such as the continuing threat of a confrontation between civilizations” will remain under Russia’s scrutiny, he said.

“Russia continues making a considerable contribution to the common goal of forming a more secure, fair and democratic world order and collective efforts aimed at countering new threats and challenges, including terrorism, cross border and organized crime, drug trafficking and illegal immigration,” the minister said.

Lavrov called on foreign partners to finally ditch their Cold War legacy and treat a resurgent Russia as an opportunity for broad international cooperation, rather than a challenge.

"I would like our partners to treat a strong Russia, which has regained confidence in itself, as an opportunity for the broadest possible international cooperation, rather than a challenge. We are ready for this," the minister said.

"No prejudices or ideology guide our attitudes or burden our approaches to international affairs. We are building our foreign policy on facts and in the spirit of pragmatism. We consider no one as our enemies," the mini`ster said.

"It should be clear, and this is another result of the year, that Russia may cooperate only on the basis of equality, mutual respect of interests and mutual benefits. The sovereignty we have re-acquired is an absolute imperative. We have earned solid credentials in foreign affairs and we are not planning to lose them," Lavrov said.

"We understand that some did not expect Russia to restore its prestige as one of the leading countries in the world so fast. We can wait - we have enough domestic problems. However, problems that cannot be solved without Russia's involvement can hardly wait," he said.

"A turning point in the development of modern international relations is approaching," he said.

"Russia will always be on the side of forces that understand the necessity of collective security through joint efforts based on international law and clear 'rules of the engagement' common for everybody. The most important task of Russia's diplomacy in the near future, or in the next year, is to reach a positive turning point in the development of the international situation," Lavrov said.

The minister said, "The international situation has 'crystallized' enough for everybody to be able to come to a common view of the contemporary historic situation, which is indispensable for the restoration of control over developments in the world."

Assessing Russian-Georgian relations, Lavrov called on the Georgian authorities to abandon their policy of confrontation with Russia and asked NATO member-nations and countries in Eastern Europe to stop supplying Georgia with weapons.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on the Georgian authorities to give up their anti-Russian policy and to allow their people to have better relations with Russia in the future.

"The reasons behind the current situation in Russian-Georgian relations are not only the detention of Russian servicemen," Lavrov said in an exclusive interview with Interfax.

"Violations of previously signed agreements and decisions to abandon them, attacks against the Russian authorities, attempts to humiliate our peacekeepers, provocative acts against them, moves to stoke tensions in the conflict zone, and an aspiration to mobilize the West against us by alleging "Russia's imminent aggression" have already become some 'carte-de-visite' of Tbilisi's policy," he said.

"We cannot help but be concerned over the fact that the Georgian authorities clearly favor force in the Abkhaz and South Ossetian issues. They have embarked on the road that will undermine all previously concluded agreements regarding settlement options," the minister said.

"In the absence of any external military threat, Georgia is spending record-high amounts of money to purchase weapons, primarily offensive ones," Lavrov said.

"As a rule, countries in Eastern Europe act as weapons suppliers. But Tbilisi receives military assistance from some old NATO member- nations as well," the minister said.

"During contacts with certain countries, we have to draw their attention to the fact that such moves run counter to OSCE member- countries' obligations not to sell weapons to conflict zones. Furthermore, such steps pose the danger of seriously destabilizing the general situation in the Caucasus region," he said.

"The crisis in relations with Georgia is not our choice. Our peoples are traditionally close to each other and share common cultural and spiritual roots. More than one million Georgians live in Russia. Most of them are a part of the scientific and cultural elite of the Russian Federation," Lavrov said.

Russia "is committed to expanding good neighborly relations with Georgia and promoting a constructive dialogue with Tbilisi," the minister said.

"To our regret, the hand of friendship extended by us remains in the air. The Georgian authorities have taken steps over the past year to gradually increase tensions in relations with Russia, which resulted in an abrupt escalation at the beginning of October," Lavrov said.

"Generally speaking, the Georgian leadership is seeking to shift the task of resolving the quite complex problems facing the country onto someone else," he said.

"The Georgian government should eventually understand that it needs to be realistic and responsible to effectively rule the state. It should honor its obligations, including those related to the settlement processes in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and generally accepted norms of interaction, primarily with its neighbors," the minister said.

Lavrov said he hoped that, "nevertheless, common sense will prevail in Tbilisi, and the authorities will try to offer their people a more worthy prospect regarding relations with Russia."

Russia will do everything possible to help find solutions aimed at turning the Korean peninsula into a nuclear-free zone that will suit all of the countries involved in the six-party talks, Lavrov said.

The fifth round of the six-nation talks, which involve the two Koreas, Russia, the United States, Japan and China and are intended to break the impasse over North Korea's nuclear program, resumed in Beijing on Monday.

The situation with the Korean Peninsula's nuclear problem has been quite complex this year, Lavrov said.

"But all the necessary compromises can be found as well if all participants in the negotiating process display good will and patience," he said.

"Pyongyang's launches of ballistic missiles in July and nuclear tests in October have only added to the complex situation in the region and upset the nuclear nonproliferation regime," the foreign minister said.

"It is satisfying that Russia and its partners have managed to unanimously pass UN Security Council's resolutions 1695 and 1718, which are aimed at normalizing the situation on the Korean peninsula through peaceful means and making it a nuclear-free zone," he said.

"These decisions also include an agreement to restart the six-nation talks in Beijing. Russia will do everything possible during them to promote the implementation of the Joint Statement dated September 19, 2005, by finding solutions that will suit all of the parties concerned," Lavrov said.

The Joint Statement, which was adopted at the end of the talks' fourth round in Beijing last year, offers a set of principles of the process of turning the Korean Peninsula into a nuclear-free zone and ways to hold further negotiations on this problem.

The first day of the resumed fifth round confirmed that the countries involved in the talks have major disagreements, reports from Beijing say.

"The start has shown that disagreements, including very serious differences, remain between the parties," Chinese delegation spokesperson Jiang Yu told journalists.

The UN Security Council's new draft resolution on Iran heeds most of Russia's approaches, Lavrov said.

"The new draft resolution, which has been drawn up by the European Troika and is now being debated within the UN Security Council, takes most of our approaches into consideration," he said.

"The draft [resolution] focuses on spheres of nuclear activities that provoke concern in the International Atomic Energy Agency. I mean uranium enrichment, chemical reprocessing and heavy water programs, as well as restrictions on the export of goods and technologies to Iran that are related to the creation of means of nuclear weapons' delivery," Lavrov said.

"We hope that this foundation will allow the UN Security Council to reach a consensus that would persuade the Iranians to sit down at the negotiating table and would ensure vigorous and comprehensive cooperation with the IAEA on all of the remaining issues dealing with Iran's nuclear activities," the minister said.

"Iran's refusal to abide by the UN Security Council's Resolution 1696 has brought up the issue of additional measures by the UN Security Council to persuade Tehran to fulfill the demands of the UN Security Council and the IAEA," Lavrov said.

"When formulating such measures, we are pursuing an approach which envisions that such measures match the actual situation, and they should be aimed at resolving non-proliferation tasks instead of punishing Iran. Such a resolution should not block any opportunities for the negotiating process," minister said.

The UN Security Council's Resolution 1696 calls on the Iranian authorities to give a positive response to the proposals put forward by Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and China. The offered measures are intended to ensure long-term cooperation with Iran in politics, civilian nuclear projects, trade, business, and regional security.

Lavrov also hailed the signing of a protocol with the United States opening the way for Russia’s entry to the WTO but reminded Washington that it owes Moscow a cancellation of the Jackson-Vanik amendment.

The bilateral Russian-U.S. protocol on WTO entry signed in Hanoi is a good example of a compromise, the minister said.

“However, the U.S. has an old and outstanding debt related to the cancellation of the Jackson-Vanik amendment,” the minister said.

The Jackson-Vanick amendment to the 1974 U.S. Trade Act linked U.S.-Soviet trade and economic agreements with the state of civil rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union, in particular the right to emigrate. In fact, the amendment restricted deliveries of some U.S. hi-tech products to the USSR and later to Russia.

The U.S. administration has been in favor of lifting the amendment since mid-1990s. However, Congress has been dragging its feet over the issue. President George Bush has signed a resolution canceling the amendment every year. Today the issue of canceling the amendment is as topical as never before, because the U.S. should provide a regime of normal trade relations with Russia after it joins the WTO.

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