Russian Foreign Minister Highly Assesses The Role Of The Commonwealth Of Independent States

It is thanks to the Commonwealth of Independent States that it has become possible to prevent, to a considerable degree, the breaking-off of vitally important ties and begin developing relations between the countries of the Commonwealth on the basis of generally recognized standards and principles of international law. The Russian foreign minister said this on Friday at the conference of the Russian Association of International Research. According to Igor Ivanov, today Russia is conducting a pragmatic course in the Commonwealth countries, aimed at the comprehensive development of relations with its partners and proceeding from the need to take into account mutual interests. This course, Ivanov stressed, already brings positive results--the Russia-Belarus Union is being formed, positive trends in relations between Ukraine and Moldavia are being observed, and relations are being evenly developed with Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Central Asian states.

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