Russia willing to assist EU countries in overcoming economic crisis – Lavrov

(Interfax – MOSCOW, Aug 13, 2013) Russia expects the EU countries to be able to overcome symptoms of crises in their economies and is willing to provide its assistance in this during its presidency of the G20, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“We genuinely hope our European partners emerge from the period of stagnation as soon as possible. We believe they will find appropriate solutions. This is why we still keep about 40 per cent of our foreign exchange reserves in euros. And this is not just well-wishing – Russia regularly participates in working out collective decisions in the IMF in order to support distressed European economies. We take part in multilateral efforts to overcome the consequences of the global financial and economic crisis,” Lavrov said an article headlined ‘State of the Union Russia-EU: Prospects for Partnership in the Changing World’ published in Journal of Common Market Studies Annual Review.

Russia’s G20 presidency agenda is aimed at seeking “to achieve sustainable, well-balanced growth in the global economy and create new jobs. We put emphasis on stimulating investment and making regulation more transparent and efficient. We think the primary objective for the G20 is to strengthen global governance institutions, create new effective instruments for removing existing disparities and for stimulating growth in all the parts of the world, and to ensure close co-ordination of economic policies,” Lavrov says.

“At the same time, it is clear that there is no magic solution for Europe or for any other part of the world. The situation requires serious and long-term effort which may employ unconventional approaches, such as adjusting one’s model of economic development and generally rebuilding trust in the economic regulation system,” Lavrov says.