Interfax: Russian foreign minister on Ukraine’s place in Europe and Eurasia

(Interfax – Moscow, December 21, 2013) Russia would like to see Ukraine participating in Eurasian integrational processes and the agreements between Russia and Ukraine of 17 December confirm a shared desire for constructive work, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

“Eurasian integrational structures are open to other partners in the CIS as well. Of course, we would like to see Ukraine taking part in these processes on the understanding that it is the will of the Ukrainian people. The results of the 17 December session of the Russian-Ukrainian interstate commission on 17 December are a clear confirmation of the mutual desire for constructive work,” Lavrov said in an end-of-year interview with Interfax news agency.

“The integrational efforts of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan as part of the Customs Union and Single Economic Space have been a major contribution to strengthening regional and international stability,” he said.

“From 2015 Eurasian integration should step up a gear with the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union. We back the wish of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan to take part in these integrational formats and are assisting them so that their accession can bring them the maximum benefits,” Lavrov stressed.

According to him Moscow’s position is that “the Eurasian and European Union integrational processes are mutually complementary and we are ready to help them converge via the idea that was put forward by President Vladimir Putin, of a single economic and humanitarian zone in the future from the Atlantic to the Pacific”.