>> russian president vladimir putin spoke to a gathering of diplomats and moscow where he talked of his foreign policy goals and discuss the recent helsinki summit with president trump. he's introduced i russian foreign minister sergey lavrov. >> mr. president, colleagues, we start the ninth meeting of russia's ambassadors and plant

injury representatives. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

[speaking russian] >> translator: mr. president, colleagues, i would like to express my sincere gratitude to the president of the russian federation vladimir putin, for paying so much attention to the diplomatic -- democratic service in terms of the condition of what we do, and assessment of our actions and also social support for our diplomats. and address any questions that may arise relation to that. we understood given the current situation in the international arena the responsibility lies on all the diplomatic workers and diplomatic missions in implementing the policy defined by the president is immense, and we will always do our best to

prove up to the task. we would also thank the government of the russian federation members of the committee present here working together. we will be able to create the necessary conditions in the international arena for a country to develop. i give the for now to the president of the russian federation, mr. vladimir putin. [applause] [speaking russian] >> translator: colleagues, i'm happy to see you at our traditional meeting. first of all i would like to thank the leadership of the foreign ministry, all the diplomats of the veterans of the diplomatic service for your contribution in developing the international cooperation of our country. all of our diplomatic mission

work together is in a well coordinated way. given the current situation in the world, russia has been consistently pursuing independent and well-balanced foreign policy. russia's involvement in international affairs is based on our key national interest to create favorable and safe conditions for our country's breakthrough development to address social and economic tasks at hand, improve the quality of life for our people. our people want russia to be a strong independent country. we're open to have equal partnership with all countries and regional alliances. being a member of u.n. security council, russia will always remain committed to the basic principles of this organizations sovereignty, , equality, noninfringing internal affairs of other states and the

resolution of all conflicts. working collectively based on international law, we can address the most complex international issues. our pursuit of global security and stability countering new threats and challenges is in much demand worldwide. our allies share our allies in the -- show our views on the basic principles of the new world order. these countries constitute the majority of the planets population. this is the approach that we would use in resolving international crisis. in syria were able to defeat international terrorism, isis and other terrorist groups. thus, we will we were able to

reserve the state of syria and create conditions for the restoration of the syrian economy and bring a you that refugee once again i like to thank our military for their professionalism. and, of course, diplomats, too. they are also very much involved in what we're doing in syria. russia is doing good work. earlier this year we held syrian national dialogue congress in sochi which was hugely successful, creating preconditions for legitimate restoration of syria's, the next step would be convention of constitutional committee and adoption of new constitution. he mentioned efforts are also

important aware very much involved in that. this would be important for syria, for this region as a whole, and for many other countries around the world because this would decrease the migration burden on european countries. collective efforts and dialogue is what russia has always propose for the korean peninsula as well. we worked together in time to prepare a plan to normalize the situation there. where happy that the principles proposed by us proved useful. the parties came to the negotiating table and abandon actions which could have caused dramatic consequences. recent positive trends which were partly due to the efforts taken by president trump will continue further, but we also have negative examples where a great much we've reached together are abandoned.

for example, i'm referring to the steps taken by the united states in withdrawing from the joint comprehensive plan of action. currently it is extremely important to reserve this new program and prevent uncontrolled growth of tensions in the middle east. the situation in south eastern ukraine remains complex. the reasons are the same. the ukrainian authorities refuse to honor the commitments they have made in resolving this conflict. they are unwilling to engage in a dialogue with their own citizens. instead, we rely on brute force. we still believe that the minsk agreements remains the only foundation for a peaceful resolution of the situation. colleagues, what we're doing in the international arena, we don't do this just for the sake

of some abstract greatness want to create problems for others. our key goal once again, i repeat, is to create conditions for our country's economic development within the next two years, russia should from the secure a place among top five economic superpowers in the world and improve the lives of her people. to achieve the strategic goals have to take advantage of all the opportunities that we have in the international arena. we should be practical securing new markets, expanding our efforts, bring in new technology, overcome existing barriers that stand in a way of the russian abroad. the principle of competition is openness, is often replaced with protectionism in international trade today.

market rallies are replaced with expediency. trade is being politicized. russia's foreign policy on the contrary should be more economically oriented and more rational. this particularly important to create space the good neighborly relations, security and stability around our country. the eurasian economic union is of course a key integration project for russia. we are glad our partners are working together with us and this work is quite effective. we use the integration opportunities to stimulate the growth of the economy's of all member states, and we want people and companies to feel the practical result of this work. we have a free trade zone with

vietnam. when engaged in talks with israel, serbia, singapore. soon we'll start talks with india. we have prepared a free trade agreement with iran. on the whole we have about 50 treaties being prepared with the eurasian economic unit. we have good prospects working together with china sign an agreement with trade cooperation. china's initiative of one belt, one road top of each other, harmonizing these projects will provide a strong foundation for a greater eurasian partnership space for economic cooperation free from all sorts of various. this is a logic that we should also use in developing our relations with the european union, despite current difficulties the eu remains one of our key trade partners. we have a lot of economic

interests in common with the eu. for decades we met developing together our transport infrastructure. all the business projects with with the europe including for example, nord stream ii our purely commercial. economically, physical. there is no political subtext to get. the key to ensuring security and stability in europe is in expanding cooperation and rebuilding trust not in deploying new military bases and military infrastructure close to russian borders, which is what is happening right now. such aggressive actions post direct threat to russia. we will respond to them appropriately. to our colleagues, trying to draw ukraine or georgia into nato should consider the

consequences of their irresponsible policies. what we need today is constructive positive agenda bringing our positions closer. this is what was discussed them a meeting with u.s. president donald trump. even though our views are vastly different, we both agreed that relations between russia and the u.s. are unsatisfactory in many ways. there are even worse than during the cold war. it would be naïve to think that problems that have been accumulated over the years can be resolved within just a few hours. nobody expected that, of course. we have started on our way towards this goal. it is good that we finally had an opportunity to have a proper meeting. we will have to wait and see how events will unfold, especially considering that certain forces

in the u.s. want to downplay the results of the helsinki summit. well, i would like to say now a few words. we know that there are certain forces in the united states which can sacrifice, which would be happy to sacrifice u.s.-russian relations for the sake of the domestic political goals. they are ready to sacrifice their businesses. u.s. companies are losing millions in contracts, losing jobs. there cooperation with russian partners accounts for tens of thousands of jobs. they're willing to express the edges of the allies in europe and in the middle east. for example, i'm referring to israel. we also talked about the golan

heights when we talk about syria, and it seems like they're not interested in the picture also willing to sacrifice the issues of their own security. i'd like to point out to you that in 2021 the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty will expire. we can live without this treaty. just a few years ago we could have lived without this treaty that we did the right thing and signed the treaty. we need to start working today to prolong to extend this treaty, otherwise in a year and half it will just run out course and there will be no more treaty any longer. when i talk about these forces in the united states, you know, this is not in line with our

political philosophy because we've always been taught that people who work for the state in the interest of their nation should first and foremost think about the fundamental principle principles, fundamental values of their country. but no, there are forces in the united states that only care about their own private interests. these are the kind of people who are pitiful, patty, despicable people. as they were described in soviet books. but on the contrary, i think these people are quite smart, sometimes, for example, when they want to feed their stories to people, they use this. not to pray someone or to

criticize someone took the reason i mention this is because i want us to take this into account in a practical work when we deal with americans. these are just the facts we face today. russia is still open to open concepts with the united states. .. and also hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world saw a different side of russia