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Russia ready for win-win cooperation with West: Lavrov

Xinhua, May 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday reiterated Moscow's willingness to have win-win cooperation with the West.

"We are ready to develop cooperation with the West if they are ready to act honestly and on basis of mutual benefit," the diplomat told a meeting at the Parliament's upper house, the Federation Council.

Lavrov added that Russia is ready to "respond constructively" and resume cooperation with NATO if the alliance reconsiders current contacts with Moscow.

Lavrov on Tuesday talked to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, while both agreed military lines of communication are very important.

"Unfortunately, when the NATO secretary general confirmed his readiness to develop contacts, especially between the military structures, he failed to come forward with any practical form of such cooperation," Lavrov said.

NATO has suspended all practical cooperation with Russia in April 2014in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea, but left the lines of political contact open.

Lavrov also urged the resumption of talks on broader cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the Eurasian Economic Union.

The EU should not "lock themselves up in their little world and reject contacts with the surrounding world," Tass news agency quoted him as saying.

While questioning the prospects of Ukraine's accession to NATO and the EU, the foreign minister stressed that possible trade relations between Ukraine and the EU should not damage Russia's interests.

Moreover, he urged the United States to use its influence in Kiev to seek a peaceful solution to the unrest in Ukraine's eastern regions.

Lavrov expressed confidence in the work of subgroups of the three-party contact group involving Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

For effective implementation of the Minsk agreements, the "Normandy Four" of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia agreed at the end of April to introduce four working subgroups of the contact group on security, political issues, economic and reconstruction issues and refugees, respectively. Endi