Address by H.E.Mr.Gleb A.Ivashentsov

Ambassador of the Russian Federation

at the Seoul Forum for International Affairs

(Seoul, May 8^th, 2007)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to thank the leaders of the Seoul Forum for International Affairs for the invitation to address you on the foreign policy of Russia. It is very important for me as Ambassador of Russia to the Republic of Korea that the citizens of your country, especially the people specializing in international affairs have a clear understanding of the aims of Russia’s foreign policy. Two our states are close neighbours and active partners. History and geography have destined them to jointly resolve quite a few common tasks.

Today’s Russia is confident about its future. We have overcome the difficulties of the 1990-s “transition period”. Not only has Russia now made a full turn-around after years of industrial decline, it has become one of the world’s ten biggest economies. People’s real incomes have more than doubled since 2000. The income gap between our citizens is still unacceptedly wide but the measures taken over in recent years have reduced the extent of poverty in Russia by almost half.

The growing demand for Russian products at the international market secured us huge currency reserves which made it possible to launch priority national projects in education, health, agriculture and housing. Our people welcome economic progress and growing well-being. The healthy investment climate stimulates the growth of the middle class as well as foreign investments. In 2006 the net inflow of foreign capital to Russia surpassed US$ 40 billion.

The democratic institutions are getting strengthened. A beneficial effect on their development is provided by the rapid expansion of our information and media space. The last four years have seen a 40-percent increase in the number of the registered print media, and an almost 2.5 fold increase in the number of electronic media outlets. But the leader for growth is without question the Internet. The number of Russians regularly using the Internet has increased more than four fold over this period and now exceeds 25 million people.

Russia’s rich educational, scientific and creative heritage gives our country clear advantages for creating a competitive economy based on knowledge and intellect, an economy driven not by the rate at which natural resources are exploited, but above all by the ability to come up with new ideas and intentions and introduce them more rapidly than others into everyday life.

We have prepared the conditions for implementing precisely this strategy. The necessary laws have been passed and the necessary structures have been established.

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With her internal consolidation Russia once again is turning into an influential and independent factor in the world politics and economics. Without Russia and despite Russia, not a single international problem of any significance can be solved.

Earlier than many, Russia was able to comprehend the lessons of the Cold War and to give up the ideology in favour of common sense. Russia is opened for constructive dialogue and equal cooperation with all countries without exception. In our relations with many states, such as our CIS neighbours, China, India, Egypt, Brazil, the G8 members, we have achieved or are approaching the level of strategic partnership.

In the world as a whole forces are gaining momentum that are keen to see a powerful and sovereign Russia, powerful inter alia with the skill to “play in team” promoting the principles of multilateralism in the world politics and establishing a more just and democratic system of international relations.

We are meeting on a special day. Today in Europe, and tomorrow, on May the 9^th, in my country, people will celebrate the day of the end of the Second World War in Europe.

For me and my fellow countrymen it is the day of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Our grandfathers and fathers fought in that war to defend our land and our right to life. The defeat of the Nazi Germany and later the fall of the militarist Japan ensured some epochal political and social changes all over the world. Had it not been for the victory over Fascism neither united Europe, nor America would be able to enjoy today the democracy and human rights they are so proud of. Had it not been for the victory over Fascism and the Japanese militarism there would have been no collapse of colonial empires and dozens new independent states with the majority of the world’s population would not have entered the international arena. We would not have gained many other essentials that determined the mankind’s development in the twentieth century.

The state that made a weighty, and, in Europe, a decisive contribution to the victory other Fascism and Militarism was the Soviet Union, to which my country, Russia is a state-continuator.

To much regret I can not but mention that some forces are raising their head today eager to rob us of our victory. The demolition of the Liberator-Warrior Monument in Tallinn in Estonia just on the eve of the Victory Day is an evidence. The new-sprung Estonian Nazis have challenged not only Russia, but all nations of the former Soviet Union, as well as the fighters of the anti-Hitler coalition, and all, who sacrificed their lives fighting Fascism. It is but strange that neither the NATO, nor the European Union are willing to recognize the fact while these organizations harbor Estonia, a country, whose authorities have no chance to get international media attention other than by demolishing a monument to someone else’s glory as they have no glory of their own.

But the provincial Estonian neo-Nazis are not the only matter of concern. From the countries whose leaders during the Second World War had turned their capitals over to the Nazi troops without resistance or ran errands for the Nazis sending soldiers to kill and plunder to the Soviet land, as well as from some other places, we can hear voices going almost as far as to demand a kind of a penance from us for winning the war.

It is not because they cannot forgive us our Communist past. A mighty and self-confident Russia is just not to the liking of some people in the West, be that Russia of the Soviet or of any other type. They liked the Russia of 1990-s not for her democratic character but for her preparedness to allow others to step on her toes. But now when Russia has come up, when she is continuously promoting her interests we are accused either of the relapses into the imperial thinking or infringement of democracy, of human rights violations and all other sins.

I would like to especially dwell on a thesis which is nowadays propagated with enforced efforts that the President of Russia in his recent speeches allegedly raised the wave of anti-American rhetorics with an intention to start a new “Cold War”.

But all the things which Putin said in February at the Security Conference in Munich and in the end of April in his address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in regard to the policy of the West did not actually contain any news. I shall give you just a number of examples of at least insincere behavior of Western partners in relation to my country. After the dissolution of the Warsaw Treaty Organization they promised us not to broaden the NATO, but contrary to that brought it straight to the borders of Russia by incorporating to the NATO not only the states of the East and Central Europe but the Baltic States as well which were formerly the part of the Soviet Union. They spoke to us about partnership in energy but built new pipelines to bypass our territory. They expected that we would keep mum when the West was fanning up anti-Russian sentiments in Ukraine and other CIS countries which were the part of the Russian State when America itself did not have a statehood. They approached us for assistance to combat terrorism but condemned our actions against Chechen terrorists and gave political asylum to persons who publicly demand the violent overthrow of the government of Russia. These days they are attempting to deploy American anti-missile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic allegedly to protect Europe and the USA against Iranian and North Korean missiles which do not exist.

Anyone who would read President Putin’s addresses in full will see that he neither attacked the US nor offered Russia as a counter-balance to her one-sided policy. He appeals to create a world where there are many centers of influence and where the carriers of different interests join their efforts and in a multilateral format come to a common denominator in settlement of world issues.

Putin as many others thinks that the world cannot exist in the conditions of one power’s diktat. History has shown that many tried that but none succeeded. In the same way the one-sided actions of the recent years in Iraq for example have not led to the settlement of any problems but have aggravated those problems and created new hot-beds of tension.

In response to the Western verbal attacks on Russia I shall say firmly: we are not trying to push anyone to love Russia, but we will not allow anyone to hurt Russia. Our people has opted for democracy not because we looked for compliments from someone in Europe or overseas. That was our own choice. We are going and will go on by our own Russian path extending the hand of friendship to all who is prepared to cooperate with Russia on the principles of equality and mutual respect to make the modern world more democratic, more just and therefore much safer.

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Let us now turn to Russia’s course in the region where the interests of our two countries directly contact viz the Northeast Asia. The economic consolidation of Russia allows us today to take up the long-pending task of the integrated development of the Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East. I mean the more efficient integration of that vast area into Russia’s economy as well as into international markets, its development intended to create favorable business environment and decent conditions for life and work of the people.

It is a great task but its realization will bring an even greater output. We believe that potentially the uplift of the Russian Asia’s vast territories and utilization of its natural and other resources could bring results which may be comparable or even greater than those of the development of the American West. The process will inevitably exert major influence on all civilizational processes in the Asia-Pacific region, and beyond.

In no other region are our internal and external interests so interconnected as in the Northeast Asia. For it is necessary to guarantee external security for the economic development of Siberia and the Far East. And the national security of Russia can be guaranteed only by forming military, political and strategic relations with our neighbors in the region based on the “security through partnership and mutual development” principle.

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The main threat to peace and security in the Northeast Asia which is the more than 50-year old military stand off on the Korean Peninsula has now been aggravated by the unsettled nuclear problem.

That issue is of a direct concern to Russia as the DPRK conducted the nuclear test on October 9th 2006 at a site which is located in the close proximity to our border at a distance of just 177 kilometers, which is less than the distance to the DMZ between North and South Korea. We do not like such a situation. We need neither nuclear and missile tests at our border, nor a saber rattling by anyone.

Therefore we in Russia sincerely welcomed the resumption of the Beijing Six-Party talks on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula. My country is continuously working in favour of the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula and the DPRK’s return to the NPT as we think that the settlement of that issue should become a kind of starting point in turning the Northeast Asia into a zone of peace, security and cooperation.

The aggravation of the nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula should not be viewed in isolation from the general world situation. In the conditions when the factor of force in the international relations is getting more and more manifested and the language of ultimatums and sanctions is widely used, certain countries feel themselves infringed and try to protect their security by all means including radical ones.

It does not mean however that the international community should not react to such behavior. Russia does not recognize the DPRK as a nuclear power as that would have given an utterly undesirable example to other countries.

At the same time we are confident that all work on settlement of the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula should be done in the context of providing security guarantees to all countries of the region viz. the DPRK, the Republic of Korea, Japan etc. Such guarantees are to be solid and convincing ones so that no one would have suspicions in regard to security. It is very important to avoid any actions that could lead to aggravation of tension around Korea and the situation coming out of control.

In addition to the settlement of the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula Russia is prepared to make her contribution to the inter-Korean normalization as well. We constantly stand in favour of building bridges between Seoul and Pyongyang and are prepared to promote the multilateral infrastructural and other economic projects on the Korean Peninsula.

We think that the participation of the DPRK in such projects as construction of an international railway corridor between Europe and Korea as well as its joining programs of creating in Northeast Asia an integrated electric power grid and pipelines’ net would serve further development of mutually beneficial and good-neighbourly relations between two Korean States and help strengthening peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia as a whole.

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The developments of the Korean Peninsula will to much extent determine the future of not only the Northeast Asia but the whole of the Asia Pacific Area and the world processes. I would like to single out two major moments.

On one hand the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula could create a precedent for settling similar problems in other regions of the world and could become thereby an important contribution to the strengthening of the nuclear weapons non-proliferation regime in general.

On the other hand the Six-Party talks represent a case of a multilateral decision-making on a hottest international issue which is utterly important in the present world conditions. It is on such basis only and not by one-sided forceful reactions that we could today stabilize the disbalanced system of international relations and help its deideologization and demilitarization.

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Constructive relations with the Republic of Korea are one of priorities of Russia’s policy in Asia. We attach independent value to such partnership. We successfully interact in the UN and at other international forums. Similarity or coincidence of the two countries’ approaches to major international issues, such as formation of the new multi-polar world order with the key role for the UN, non-acceptance of diktat in inter-state relations, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and global energy security is a substantial basis for our interaction.

We in Russia welcomed the election of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon as the UN 8^th Secretary General. We view that as a convincing proof of high appreciation by the international community of the constructive role the Republic of Korea plays in international affairs.

The necessary legal basis for the bilateral cooperation has been established. The two countries have concluded agreements on trade, on investments guarantees, on fishing, on prevention of double taxation, on cooperation in peaceful use of the atomic energy, on cultural exchanges etc.

In addition to cooperation on land and sea cooperation in space is now developing. In 2008 the first Korean cosmonaut trained in Russia will be launched into space by a Russian spaceship.

The Russian-Korean trade volume has been increasing steadily. In 2006 it approached the mark of USD 10 billion. This is surely much less than the Korean trade with some other countries, but it is the growth rate not the numbers themselves that counts. The trade volume between our countries has grown 3,5 fold since 2000. We believe that realization of joint investment projects particularly in energy, as well as in petrochemical and automobile industries will lead to a much bigger increase of bilateral trade.

It is also unreasonable to view Russia only as a supplier of raw materials to the Korean market. For example about forty percent of civilian helicopters now being used in the Republic of Korea were produced in Russia. Quite a few commercial agreements on joint science-research and experimental projects, aimed at production of high-tech products in the Republic of Korea under Russian licenses are being negotiated.

Dear friends,

The goals of the Russian foreign policy are straight and clear. These are to create favorable external conditions for safe and prosperous life of the people of Russia. The absolute majority of other states wish exactly the same for their citizens. Anyhow in the modern inter-dependent world we could achieve that only by joint efforts through unity of actions in the spirit of partnership.

We do not close our eyes to the remaining disagreements, to double standards and relapses of the bloc thinking. But it is not those issues what determines the main directions of the international developments. What is really sounding it is those factors which unite the world community, not otherwise.