Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to questions at the joint news conference with CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas following the CSTO Foreign Ministers Council videoconference, Moscow, May 26, 2020

We have held a CSTO Foreign Ministers Council meeting via videoconference.

Russia is chairing the CSTO this year. Considering the difficult situation caused by the coronavirus infection, we approached the preparations and holding of this meeting with certain precautions.   

We had to adjust the meeting agenda because we could not ignore the goal of countering the spread of the coronavirus. The dynamics of the situation confirmed the need for creating a response to the threats of biological security and developing cooperation in our common epidemiological space. During this crisis we consider it particularly important to pool our efforts and take coordinated steps. We share the opinion of the CSTO member countries that the statement on solidarity and mutual assistance in countering the coronavirus fully reflects the CSTO’s consistent position of principle. This statement will be published today.

Based on identical positions, we verified our views on a broad spectrum of global and regional issues.

We supported the creation of a fairer and more democratic world order based on internationally recognised principles of international law. We adopted a joint statement on this issue, which reaffirms the commitment of the CSTO members to the goals and principles of the UN Charter.

This year is the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. We adopted a special foreign minister statement on preventing such catastrophes in the future, and urged the international community to take joint actions to preserve the memory of the historical truth of the struggle for the world’s liberation from Nazism, prevent any attempts to insult the memory of the dead and denounce all forms of the ideology of hatred, extremism and ethnic, racial or religious discrimination.   

We discussed the implementation of the CSTO’s priority goals during Russia’s chairmanship in the context of the tasks set forth by President of Russia Vladimir Putin at the November 28 Collective Security Council in Bishkek.

We reviewed the prospects for developing peacekeeping activities with an emphasis on promoting and expanding cooperation in this area between the CSTO and the UN, including upgrading of our regulatory framework.

In the context of developing the statuses of CSTO Partner and Observer states (as you know, these statuses were established by the CSTO Council) we discussed the deepening of cooperation with the CIS and the SCO. The current meeting was attended by CIS Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev and SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov. We discussed the prospects for pooling efforts by the three organisations.

We endorsed a number of documents on personnel issues and the CSTO plan for this year.

We will hold the next CSTO Foreign Minister Council meeting in Moscow in the latter half of the year.