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'[A]ssertion of multilateralism in international relations, the strengthening of the role of the UN and international law', Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov sets out Russia's foreign policy priorities for 2004, February 12

'Speech by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Igor Ivanov at Joint Session of Federation Council and State Duma Foreign Affairs Committees', February 12, 2004.

Esteemed members of the committees,

Dear friends,

First of all I would like to congratulate all the newly elected deputies of the State Duma and to wish all of you fruitful legislative work at this new, exceptionally important and crucial stage in the development of our state.

We highly appreciate the close coordination our Ministry has developed in recent years with the deputies' corps and in the first place with the senior officials and members of the International Committees of both Houses of the Federal Assembly. I think it is thanks largely to this coordination that our foreign policy is assuming the character of a policy of the whole country and nation and relies upon the broad support of Russian society. That is why we have a keen interest in ensuring to the fullest extent possible a continuity in our joint work in tackling the tasks which stand before us in the international sphere.

Before moving to a concrete discussion of these tasks, I would like to say a few words about how we perceive the major foreign policy outcome of the last four years.

The most important thing, obviously, is that Russia's international positions have been greatly strengthened over this period. To a decisive extent, of course, this has occurred thanks to internal stabilization in the country and to our going into steady economic growth. At the same time the fact has played a vital role that we have generally managed to complete the period of formation of the foreign policy of the new Russia and to devise a course at the base of which lies a clear vision of our long-term national interests and which by the same token ensures our country the role of a constructive and predictable partner in the international arena.

These long-term interests are defined in the Russian Federation's Foreign Policy Concept, approved by President Vladimir Putin. The pivot of this document is in the creation of the most favorable external conditions for the country's development, including the ensuring of reliable security, stable economic growth and enhancement of the well-being of citizens.

Another basic thesis is that we can only realize our national interests in today's interdependent world by due consideration for the broad interests of the world community; that is, via active cooperation with other states, bilaterally as well as multilaterally. Hence our efforts for integrating Russia into the system of global economic ties and for shaping a world order which to the greatest extent would meet our national interests.

Our foreign partners see in Russia an important participant of the world processes, contributing to equilibrium on the international scene.

It is in this capacity that our country has helped rally the international community in the fight against terrorism and other global challenges as well as around the idea of strengthening multilateralism in international relations, primarily based on the central role of the United Nations and international law. Russia is actively involved in the search for solutions to the most acute global and regional problems, including the strengthening of nonproliferation regimes, reduction of tension around the nuclear programs of Iran and the DPRK, and the settlement of the Middle East and other regional conflicts.

Having become in 2002 a full-fledged member of the Group of Eight, our country has joined in the mechanism of collective response to the globalization processes. We are getting ready for the upcoming Russian G8 Presidency in 2006.

Definite results have been achieved in the development of the integration processes within the CIS. The Treaty on the Establishment of the Eurasian Economic Community has been concluded and the Russia-Belarus Union State Treaty has entered into force. There was signed the agreement on the creation of the common economic space of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Based on the Collective Security Treaty, an international regional organization, the CSTO, has emerged.

Russia's partnership with the European Union has tangibly advanced. The contours are outline of the common spaces uniting us in Greater Europe in the economic, legal and humanitarian spheres and in the field of domestic and external security. A mutually acceptable solution concerning Kaliningrad passenger transit has been achieved. There are the first results in the work on the gradual removal of visa barriers. Bilateral relations are successfully developing with the European countries, especially with France and Germany and also with Italy.

Cooperation is constructively developing within the Russia-NATO Council.

Qualitative changes have taken place in Russian-US relations. Thanks to the active political dialogue, primarily at the level of the presidents of our countries, they have become more stable and predictable. Today the fundamental principles of our relations with the United States - and it is above all the long-term interests of combating terrorism and other global challenges - are strong enough for us to be able to frankly discuss and to get over the existing differences constructively. Thanks to this we managed to prevent a crisis in the wake of the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty and to establish a new framework of strategic relations between our countries. Now we have to implement the bilateral Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions, which came into force in 2003. There is the basis for advancing cooperation in the field of energy and high technologies.

The multivector policy of Russia, in which the various geographical thrusts are not at variance but mutually complement each other, is yielding real results. This is particularly noticeable in the Asian sector. Thus, our relations with China are today elevated to the highest level in all of their history. At the base of this, along with the similarity of the international approaches and the complementary nature of economic interests, lies the mutual renunciation of territorial claims and effective confidence-building measures in the military field.

The Declaration on Strategic Partnership, signed in 2000, has imparted additional impetus to the traditionally friendly Russian-Indian relations. A favorable perspective of the development of cooperation with Japan is set into the Russian-Japanese Plan of Action, approved at the highest level in 2003.

A major event was the creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with the participation of Russia, China and Central Asian states. This new regional structure is gradually becoming a real factor of stability and cooperation in a vast geopolitical space.

Finally, in these four years a great deal has been done to protect the rights and interests of our citizens and compatriots abroad. The potential of the UN, the Council of Europe, international courts and human rights organizations was actively enlisted in tackling this task. Here we have succeeded in creating a number of important precedents, based on which we will continue to build up work in this sector.

The international situation in which we have to act, generally bears a complex character.

Of course, huge positive changes have occurred in the world in the last ten-fifteen years. But the world, unfortunately, has not become safer or more stable. Globalization with its inherent contradictions and disproportions posed a series of new problems for the tackling of which the world community essentially was not ready. There grows the number of unresolved regional conflicts and ever new seats of tension are arising. Global challenges and threats are becoming acute: international terrorism, cross-border organized crime, illicit drug trafficking. The spread of arms and military technologies, including WMD presents an ever-increasing danger.

All of this takes place against the background of an obvious reduction of the controllability of the world processes due to the protracted transition from the previous bipolar world pattern to a new world order, the contours of which so far are only just taking shape. Owing to this, the struggle has intensified around the choice of fundamental principles and ways of safeguarding security in the world.

Contradictions and differences on that score surfaced with particular force in the course of the Iraq crisis. At the same time the current situation in the world generally bears out the correctness of the strategic choice made by us of renouncing confrontation and of defending the national interests of the country through building partner relations with all the main centers of the modern world. Needless to say the pursuit of a course like this requires intense and consistent work. As President of the Russian Federation Putin has noted, no one is giving us any presents. All that Russia has achieved has come about only thanks to our own efforts, to our intense work.

In 2004 the foreign policy of Russia will tackle the following principal tasks:

1. The promotion of our concept of a future world pattern, assertion of multilateralism in international relations, the strengthening of the role of the UN and international law.

2. Continued efforts to reinforce the international community's unity in the interests of countering the new challenges and threats in the era of globalization, international terrorism in the first place.

3. The strengthening of WMD nonproliferation regimes, including the settlement of the Iranian and DPRK nuclear problems.

4. The prevention and settlement of regional conflicts: the Middle East, Iraq, Kosovo and conflicts in the CIS space.

5. The deepening of the integration processes and the development of bilateral relations in the CIS space, and the prevention of rivalry in this region between Russia, and the US and EU.

6. The development of the strategic partnership with the EU. The formation of the common spaces. The ensuring of the national interests of Russia in the context of the EU enlargement. Advancement towards a visa-free regime of trips.

7. Ensuring an effective partnership with NATO. The tackling of the questions relating to the alliance's expansion, including the problem of the adapted CFE Treaty and the plans of reconfiguration of the US military presence in Europe. Practical cooperation in peacekeeping and in the struggle against terrorism.

8. The further strengthening of Russian-American relations (in light of the outcome of Colin Powell's visit to Moscow).

9. The expansion of cooperation with Russia's leading partners in Asia (the PRC, India, Japan, other countries).

10. The development on a pragmatic basis of relations with states of other regions (the Arab world, Latin America and other).

11. The intensification of economic diplomacy, including in the energy field as well as in the context of Russia's entry into the WTO.

12. Coordination with the Federal Assembly in questions of the defense of the rights of compatriots and the strengthening of the positive image of Russia in the world.

February 12, 2004

Source: Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, http://www.russianembassy.org.

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