Putin: Asia Pacific security architecture bound to guarantee genuine balance of forces
SHANGHAI. May 21 (Interfax) - The Asia Pacific region needs the architecture of security, which will guarantee equality in interaction and prevent the appearance of any self-contained blocs, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the first plenary meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit.
"The region needs the architecture of security guaranteeing equally in interaction, a genuine balance of forces and a harmony of interests," the Russian chief of state said.
"We are confident that the security must be indivisible," he underscored.
"The prospective system of genuine and equal security in Asia shall rest upon a balance of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy mechanisms and prevent the appearance of any self-contained or narrow systems and blocs. This is the only way to avert the emergence of new political and ideological rifts in the region," the chief of state continued.
Conference members are jointly resolving pressing problems of the Asian region, "which still has large spots of contradictions." "Such risks as the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, religious extremism, transborder organized crime and piracy, which threaten the entire region, are not reducing either," Putin indicated.
"The problems of Syria and the Middle East peace process remain a substantial factor of destabilization. All of us realize that these challenges can be efficiently coped with only by collective and targeted efforts," the Russian president stressed.
Trade and investment are an important area of Conference collaboration, Putin said.
He recalled the establishment of the Conference's business council for fostering small and medium businesses. "We think it would be expedient to discuss as the first step the involvement of small business in innovation projects," the president said.
Russia backs the enlargement of humanitarian contacts, primarily youth exchanges, he added.
Putin also said that Turkish President Abdullah Gul was unable to attend the Conference summit due the Soma mine disaster and once again presented his condolences to Turkey.