Russia, EU should have clear long-term objectives in building relationship - Lavrov
MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax) - Relations between Russia and the European Union should set clear long-term objectives, and the EU should stop using the friend-or-foe principle in dealing with Russia, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"It's getting increasingly more obvious that we are being hampered by a lack of clear long-term objectives in resolving specific problems related to the developments on our continent," Lavrov said in an article published in the Thursday issue of Kommersant.
"There is the impression that our Western partners often act instinctively, being guided by the simplistic friend-or-foe principle and not thinking too much about far-reaching implications of their steps. Anyway, I think the primitive tug of war between the European Union and Russia cannot meet the realities of international relations, which are getting increasingly more complicated, and is not worthy of the huge political-diplomatic experience the European powers have accumulated for centuries," Lavrov said.
"The relationship between Russia and the European Union has approached a kind of moment of truth," he said.
"In order to build cooperation consistently and purposefully, we should understand whether we are determined earnestly to follow the way of achieving ambitious goals of true strategic partnership. Otherwise, we will continue stumbling now and then on the absence of clear objectives. Information wars won't help here. This calls for true leadership and political wisdom," he said.
"The reflections on what actually prompts our Western partners to be so stubborn in taking the either-or approach in the Ukrainian situation and, rejecting proprieties, bluntly pursue the line of its inclusion in its geopolitical environment inevitably lead to fundamental aspects of relations between the European Union and Russia. It turns out that the present misunderstanding is based on a lack of clarity regarding long-term objectives in the development of relations between Russia and the EU, or, using Javier Solana's expression, a deficit of strategic trust," Lavrov said.
Western media outlets often resort to anti-Russian information campaigns using Cold War-style phraseology, he said.
"I had the chance to hear echoes of such judgments at the OSCE ministerial meeting in December 2013 and at the recent jubilee session of the Munich Security Conference," Lavrov said.
"Certainly, society is a living organism, and ideas about values may change as long as it develops. A lot of approaches common in the European Union today were perceived as unacceptable in the same countries just about 20-30 years ago. I mean, in particular, moral relativism, the propagation of permissiveness and hedonism, the strengthening positions of militant atheism, and the rejection of traditional values that have been the moral foundation of human development for centuries. Moreover, these attitudes are being promoted with messianic persistence both in those countries themselves and in their relations with neighbors," he said.
Lavrov pointed out in connection with this that "principles of democracy imply above all respect for opinions of others."
"Everyone should acknowledge that, by agreeing on basic values, including respect for democratic foundations in public affairs, human rights and fundamental freedoms, the peoples of Europe should at the same time allow each other to remain different and retain their cultural identity, in full compliance with universal human rights conventions and declarations," Lavrov said.