Speech by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, and his answers to the questions from the mass media during the press conference with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Leonid Kozhara, summarising the results of the eighth session of the Sub-Committee for International Cooperation of the Russian-Ukrainian interstate commission, Rostov-On-Don, 28 October 2013

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have held the eighth session of the Sub-Committee for international cooperation of the Russian-Ukrainian interstate commission. We discussed a wide range of topical issues on the international and bilateral agendas with my colleague Leonid Kozhara and our employees.

We exchanged opinions on the activities of the CIS, over which Ukraine will preside next year. Russia supports the presidency programme, presented by the President Viktor Yanukovych at the CIS summit in Minsk, on the 25 October. We are convinced that natural objective integration processes in the CIS space must lead to a combination of the efforts of our countries and create the conditions for gradual development, in the formation of common rules in the entire European continent. This corresponds to the goal set in the Concept of the Foreign Policy of Russia, on the creation of a common economic and humanitarian space from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. We will support Ukraine's presidency in the successful organisation of all the events scheduled in the Commonwealth for the next year.

We also stated the need to improve the international legal framework of our interaction, including in issues related to combating new threats. The relevant agencies of our countries coordinate their efforts in combating any manifestations of terrorism, drugs and other forms of international crime, more and more closely. We supported the need for further activation and intensification of this work.

We agreed to closely cooperate in issues of combating illegal drug turnover. We agreed to conduct an expert meeting between antiterrorism agencies. The list of our primary tasks includes the fight against piracy, cybercrime, corruption, money laundering and funding of terrorism.

We value the coordinated actions of the representatives of our countries, to evacuate Russian and Ukrainian nationals, who have become hostages of political destabilisation in countries of the Middle East and North Africa, highly. We have gained good experience in overcoming these sad situations. If we face them in the future (we cannot exclude that), we will be ready to interact closely and effectively to solve the problems faced by nationals of our countries.

We discussed borderissues. We noted our mutual aspiration to contribute to supporting historically established friendly and kinship relations between the nationals of our two countries, the provision of opportunities to them to cross the border without any obstacles and at any convenient time. The adopted decisions aim at continuing this work.

We paid a lot of attention to the Azov-Kerch peace process. We are convinced that we need such a decision, including delimitation of the Kerch Strait, which will take into account the interests of both countries and will not create any obstacles for the joint use of these waters for the benefit of Russia and Ukraine.

We exchanged opinions on the topic of the Transnistria peace process. Russia and Ukraine are guarantor countries and mediators in this process. We agreed to continue our efforts to find solutions on the basis of basic conflict settlement principles, which are well known and envisage the achievement of agreements between the conflicting parties with the active assistance of external players.

We value the continuing work of Ukraine as chair of the OSCEhighly. We reviewed the preparations for the Kiev session of the Council of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the OSCE, and the work of this organisation in general. We noted the importance of a constructive dialogue, which the OSCE sometimes lacks. We hope that the propositions, which were prepared by our Ukrainian colleagues for the Kiev session of the OSCE CFM, will allow us to advance on many key issues, which are of concern for our nationals – these are freedom of movement and combating new challenges and threats.

The topic of reforming and modernising the OSCE, in the interests of a more balanced approach to all three of the "baskets" in its activity, in accordance with the principles approved within the framework of the Helsinki Final Act and other decisions of OSCE summits, took shape. It is time to actively deal with putting the organisation of OSCE work in elections' observationin order.

We pay special attention to the work to avoid glorification of Nazism, revival of fascist ideology. Today, on the 28 October, Ukraine celebrates the day of liberation from fascist invaders. We congratulate our friends on this anniversary. I am convinced that our memories of that war will never be lost, and all our future generations will remember the deeds of their fathers and grandfathers, and will not allow such a tragedy to be repeated.

We expressed our satisfaction with our interaction within the UN both in terms of its content and our support of each other in elections to different bodies of the World organisation's system.

Our foreign policy interaction is based on regular foundations. We have just signed another Plan of interaction between our foreign services for next year, which embraces almost all issues on the regional and international agendas. The results of our work are reflected in the Protocol, which we have signed today. Our work today confirmed the need for the Sub-Committee for international cooperation of the Russian-Ukrainian interstate commission.

Together with Leonid Kozhara we thank the authorities of the Rostov Region and Rostov-On-Don for their excellent organisation of our work. Leonid Alexandrovich proposed to hold the next, ninth session of the Sub-Committee in Dnepropetrovsk. We were glad to accept this invitation.

Question: Ukraine has proposed many times to Russia to conduct consultations in the Ukraine-Russia-EU format regarding the risks and threats after the signing of the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union. What is the position of Russia on this issue?

Sergey Lavrov: Actually, consultations are always valuable, if they provide the opportunity to consider the positions of all interested parties before reaching decisions. They usually contribute to making the adopted decisions reflect the concerns and interests of the participants at such consultations.

In this case, we are talking about something else – not consultations regarding the line-up of relations between Ukraine and the EU on the issues directly affecting Russian-Ukrainian relations, but to have post factum consultations on the basis of the event, which has already happened, without the opportunity of changing the format, into which they plan to turn the relations between Ukraine and the EU, and without considering the concerns and interests of the Russian party, which were reported to our Ukrainian friends many times through trusted channels and in public.

We always speak in favour of a dialogue, talking to each other and listening to one another. In this case the President of the Russian Federation has already stated our position. If this agreement is signed, and Ukraine starts fulfilling its obligations under it, in particular, in as far as the liberalisation of the trade regime with the EU is concerned – which in fact, gives free access of European goods to their market, then this will create risks for our trade and for Russian manufacturers. We will be forced to introduce protection measures envisaged under the CIS Free Trade Zone Treaty. We do not mean to ban the supply of goods from the territory of Ukraine –the most-favoured-nation principle according to WTO provisions will be used. However, additional benefits to this regime arising from participation in the CIS Free Trade Zone Treaty will, of course, cease to be in effect.

Question: There were presidential elections yesterday in Georgia. How do you evaluate their results in the context of future relations between Russia and Georgia? Will we be able to return to the question about the renewal of diplomatic relations in the near future? Has the Russian party had any contacts with the winner of the elections – Georgy Margvelashvili, the candidate from the ruling coalition.

Sergey Lavrov: These elections onlytook place yesterday – it is not even a day since their end. According to the incoming information, these elections were free and honest. Nobody disputes their results. We congratulate Georgians on this event.

As to assessing these elections in the context of future Russian-Georgian relations, it is up to the Georgian authorities – a government must be formed (there were statements that the current prime minister is going to leave this position). We hope the Georgian people will find an end to all organisational questions regarding the formation of new authorities as soon as possible. We will hope that Tbilisi will adopt a friendly, neighbourly policy, considering modern realities in this complicated region, towards Russia. The same concerns the issue of the renewal of diplomatic relations – we did not break these relations. We will wait for statements from the Georgian party to learn about their policy in their relations with Russia.

Question: On the eve of the visit of the Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi to Damascus, 19 armed groups of the Syrian opposition expressed threats towards participants of Geneva-2 and called them traitors. How would you comment on this?

Sergey Lavrov: We think that generally the situation around the convention of Geneva-2 requires immediate interference from those who influence the opposition. We face alot of problems related to the break-up of the opposition into individual groups, each of which has its own opinion. In parallel, armed units, which were earlier associated with the so-called National Coalition, formed of foreign Syrian opposition, now refuse to be connected with it and announce that they do not owe allegiance to it. Several groups state directly that Al-Qaeda is closer to them and they act according to its instructions. It is outrageous that some of these extremist terrorist organisations, fighting against government forces in Syria, are starting to express threats. This is not the first time they do it. This time the threats are addressed to those, who will be brave enough to go to the Geneva conference proposed by Russia and the United States with the support of world community forces. The same threats were expressed against the countries, which speak in favour of searching for a political settlement and confronting the attempts to use external force. They threatened the Russian Federation that our diplomatic representatives will become a legitimate target in foreign countries. It is outrageous and unacceptable and lies on the conscience of those who pay and arm these opposition groups.

Each opposition unit has its sponsor. These are not always the same countries. However, each opposition group has its own "patron", either in the region or outside it. Everybody, including our American partners, know this well. Together we try to make these "patrons" become aware of their responsibility for the conduct of the opposition. But verbally they say that Geneva-2 should be started. However, in fact, some very influential countries in the Syrian crisis work directly to disrupt this Russian-American initiative.

Question: On what grounds does Russia detain Alexander Fedorovich, a Ukrainian national, especially considering the fact that he was detained in common use waters? When will Russian border guards, who actually killed four Ukrainian sailors, go on trial? Why does Russia detain the Ukrainian sea-cook from the Arctic Sunrise, if he was a member of the crew and did not participate in the Greenpeace action?

Sergey Lavrov: In this case these persons are being detained on the same grounds as suspects in offences in the territory of Ukraine. There are laws and investigation processes, which must be implemented. We talked about this today. As far as I understand, the offices of the general prosecutors of our countries are in touch with one another.

As to the incident in the Sea of Azov, unfortunately, this is not a single accident. Our sailors, who were suspected of contraband, died in the Caspian region before now. Therefore it is important to settle the issues of legal regulations in the waters of the Caspian Sea, in this case with our Ukrainian colleagues in the Azov-Kerch peace process, and of the delimitations in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. I repeat: this does not cancel the need to draw a line under these proceedings as soon as possible to make everything fully clear. We talked about this again today.

As to the situation with the Arctic Sunrise, I will say that citizens of 19 countries, including Russia, are under investigation in this case. The Russian national, as human rights defenders tell us, was not a crew member, but a photographer. This action was planned, and everybody, who agreed to participate in it, knew well, whom and what they would photograph and feed. You need simply to acknowledge what is happening. Investigation activities must state the guilt of these people or free them from accusations on the basis of international law, primarily, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, and Russian law as a country, which is a party to this Convention.