Speech and answers of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation S.V. Lavrov during the joint press conference dedicated to the results of talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland E. Tuomioja, Helsinki, 20 August 2012

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

It is really very pleasant for me to be here today in Helsinki and to participate in the negotiations with my colleague E. Tuomioja I would like to sincerely express my gratitude for the hospitality rendered to our delegation. I am satisfied with the results of meetings with the President of the Republic of Finland S. Niinistц, Prime Minister J. Katainen and, of course, with the negotiations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs E. Tuomioja.

We share a common position that the relations between Russia and Finland serve as a true example of good neighbourliness and cooperation based on equal rights and mutual benefits. The mutual trust and respect of positions of each other lie in their ground, but the most important basis is the willingness of our peoples to cooperate. It is sufficient to say that more than 10 million crossings of Russia-Finland border were registered in the last year.

Political contacts are developing intensely. On 22nd June the meeting of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin with the President of the Republic of Finland S. Niinistц took place in Saint-Petersburg. Today we have discussed the plans of forthcoming contacts on the highest level, as well as further contacts between our Prime Ministers.

Our relations in commercial, economic and investment fields have reached the level of strategic partnership. It is very important that the Declaration on partnership for modernization that was signed between two states is being actively brought into life. The high technological spheres that have good prospects and create hundreds of thousands of working places attract more and more investments in both directions.

The trans-regional and cross-border cooperation is being strengthened, as well as humanitarian and cultural contacts. We have actively supported the suggestion of our colleagues from Finland to pay more attention to the promotion of contacts between the young people of both countries. These contacts should become denser not only in Russia-Finland context, but also in the context of relations of Russia and the European Union. We speak for the encouragement of connections of our civil societies, and we are ready to discuss the state of this field in Russia and in Finland. Today, at the request of the President of the Republic of Finland, we have discussed these problems in the course of negotiations, which have been just finished. Other issues that were touched include the development of political system in the Russian Federation, liberalisation of the party system, cooperation with non-governmental organisations.

During the meeting with the President and the negotiations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland we have also touched another subject that sometimes thrills the public opinion. We have come to an agreement that we will jointly, in the spirit of mutual respect, discuss the problems related to controversial cases that touch the rights of children in family conflicts, and that we will above all follow the interests of children themselves.

We have thoroughly discussed the state of affairs in the relation between Russia and the EU. As far as this issue is concerned, the key priority for us is the further simplification of the visa regime and, as a final result, the transition to visa-free short-term trips of the citizens of our countries. We appreciate the principal position of Finland in supporting the soonest solution of these questions that will determine the character of the strategic relations between Russia and the European Union. We appreciate the coincidence of our views in what refers to the inadmissibility of opposition of integration processes within the frames of the European Union, on one hand, and within the Eurasian space, on the other hand. We share the opinion that both processes are based on the norms of the WTO and are quite complementary.

We have reached an agreement about the further coordination of our actions in the context of regional cooperation in the region of Baltic sea and Arctic, where our approaches are almost similar.

We are densely cooperating with Finland in the UN, the OSCE and the European Council. Today we had a further exchange of opinions on how to proceed in the direction of providing the truly pan-European character of cooperation on our continent.

As Mr. E. Tuomioja has already mentioned, due to understandable reasons we have paid the main attention to the situation in Syria. It is necessary to notice that the problem was discussed not in black and white, but with the complete understanding of the complexity of the problem, which touches not only Syria, but this region that is very important for the rest of the world.

We share a common opinion considering the necessity of intensification of efforts on overcoming the deadlock, which the process of Middle Eastern settlement (first of all, between Palestine and Israel) is experiencing now, as well as the necessity to implement the decision that was adopted and to assemble the conference dedicated to the establishment of a zone free from weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Russia is participating in the preparatory process along with other depositaries — USA and Great Britain. The representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations and the coordinator, who is a citizen of Finland, are also involved in this process. We are densely cooperating in this format, and soon we are to define the date of such conference.

I am grateful to Mr. E. Tuomioja for the perfect organization of our visit and, in return, invite him to visit the Russian Federation in any comfortable time.

Question (addressed to both ministers): How can you characterise the ongoing bilateral dialogue on the issues of adoption of children? What are the prospects on signing an agreement on this subject, similar to the agreement that was recently signed between Moscow and Washington?

S.V. Lavrov (answers after E. Tuomioja): Any questions that are connected with the fate of children are bound to cause acute emotional reaction in the society, and this is understandable. We wish that every child, and especially the citizen of the Russian Federation, would feel comfortably in any circumstances, and we want all his rights and interests to be provided. This refers both to situations connected with adoption, and to the cases, when children are born in mixed marriage.

Indeed, Russia has recently become a member of the Hague Convention. It makes the situation simpler, but does not solve all questions. That's why we are now conducting negotiations on signing the bilateral agreements with those countries, where which the issues of affiliation are quite frequent in respect to the general amount of relations. Such documents have been signed, for instance, with USA, Italy and France. We have also offered to establish the corresponding committee with our neighbours from Finland. But the form has minor meaning, the most important thing is content. As far as the content is concerned, today, as a result of the meeting with the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland, we have gained understanding of the necessity of regular dialogue with participants of the members of foreign ministries, ministries of justice, guardianship and custodianship agencies, and plenipotentiaries for the rights of children. Our objective is to calmly deal with any particular cases without politisation. We should be guided by, most of all, the interests and rights of children and, of course, the existing legislation. I hope that a lot of issues will be clarified and solved during such a dialogue.

Question (addressed to S.V. Lavrov): The Western countries are widely discussing the sentence to the girls from the Pussy Riot punk group that was passed in Russia. They believe that it is inadequate to the committed actions. What are your comments on this issue?

S.V. Lavrov: The answer is simple – we should not interfere into the work of the court. Personally we can either agree or disagree with the verdict, but it is inadmissible to interfere into this process. As far as the adequacy of the punishment is concerned, I can only be guided by the factual bearing of the case. For example, in Germany the punishment for sacrilege and desecration in temples is up to three years of prison confinement, in France, as far as I remember, it is up to 2 years, and in Austria it is up to half of a year. As far as I could clarify, in Finland such actions may be punished with two years of imprisonment. I have recently read that in Israel there was a case, when a man was condemned to two years of prison because he brought a severed head of a pig on the Temple Mount.

I remind to those who are trying to put the case in such a manner that the court was not making the decision independently, that the day before the announcement of the verdict the President of the Russian Federation spoke for leniency for these girls. The leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church has taken the similar position. But the court proceedings cannot be changed. The possibility to lodge an appeal exists. As far as I understand, the attorneys of the girls are going to make it. Let's abstain from making precocious conclusions and, even more so, go into hysterics due to this reason.

Question (addressed to both ministers): After two days Russia will access into the World Trade Organisation. What, in your opinion, will be the impact of this event on the development of Russia-Finland trade relations?

S.V. Lavrov (answers first): I think that the influence will be the most positive. I am sure that both the business community of Finland that operates on the Russian market and the Russian businessmen will receive benefits from the accession, because the restrictions on the Russian Federation that were applied by Brussels because we were not a member of the WTO will be no longer in force.

I am sure that the possibilities that are opening in connection with the accession of our country to the WTO that will take place on 22 August will be bilaterally and thoroughly discussed during the meeting of the co-chairmen of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, which is planned to be held this autumn. The Prime Minister of Finland has told me today that in Finland virtually all ministers are having some joint projects with Russia, and that they are preparing the corresponding proposals.

Question (addressed to both ministers): What is your attitude to the initiative of Turkey on the establishment of a "security zone" in Syria in order to find the solution to the situation with refugees, which is becoming more and more complicated?

S.V. Lavrov: I have already made a lot of declarations considering the recent events in Syria and around this country. Unilateral ideas of any kind just won't work. It can be proved not only by the development of the Syrian crisis, which has already been lasting for one and a half of a year, but also by the general history of attempts of using such approach for the settlement of various conflicts.

In Syria it is necessary to stop all the parties of the conflict. Both parties are conducting military crimes, which are reflected in the recent report of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Irrespectively of how did it all begin, the main thing now is to cease the armed conflict. Any other ideas mean that their authors are ready to pay with a large number of human lives in order to achieve their personal goals.

The efficient approaches can be only collective. The document adopted as a result of the Geneva conference, which took place on 30 June this year, can serve as an example of such collective actions of foreign actors. At that moment all the participants – the European and Arab countries, USA, Turkey, Russia and China – reached an agreement that we will demand from all Syrian parties to take this document as the basis for settlement. We have achieved the consent with the Geneva document from the government of the Syrian Arab Republic. However, our partners have not even tried to do such a thing. Moreover, the main opposition groups have publicly repudiated this document. They have not even tried to work with it.

When we have proposed to adopt in the UN Security Council the resolution consisting of only one sentence, which would approve this document as the basis for the negotiations, our foreign colleagues have said that it has already "become obsolete", though a little bit more than a month has passed since it was adopted by the consensus. Such inability to achieve an agreement is concerning us.

We still believe that if all the participants of the Geneva meeting demand the same actions from all the Syrian parties — the termination of violence and the beginning of negotiations on building the "transitory governing body" — the chances for peaceful settlement, salvation of many lives, and non-admission of new victims will still exist. It is just necessary that everyone in the UN Security Council would realise their responsibility for the non-admission of the suspension of efforts considering the approval of a very important consensus achieved in Geneva.

20 August 2012