Message from the Ambassador of The Russian Federation on the occasion of the National Day of Russia
Dear Sri Lankan friends! It is a great honour and pleasure to address people of Sri Lanka on the occasion of the Day of Russia that we celebrate on 12th June, 2016. This day the Russian people at home and around the world rejoice with strong patriotic sentiments and respectfor the Motherland, a country with more than a thousand-year-long history, unique legacy and culture, which has united on a vast expanse a multitude of peoples, religions and languages.
On this very day 26 years ago, the Parliament of the Russian Federation adopted the Declaration of the State Sovereignty. Later the 12th June was declared The National Day of the Russian Federation and marked the beginning of a new era in the history of Russia– foundation of a new, independent, democratic state. Nowadays the Day of Russia symbolises not only the cardinal changes that took place quarter of a century ago, but the entire history of the Russian state which has been continuously evolving for more than 11 centuries and will keep evolving with the help of current and future generations.
At the same time, Russia must find its place in the modern world, which is also undergoing deep transformation. International relations are in the process of transition, they become increasingly complex and unpredictable, accompanied by increased economic and political turbulence at the global and regional levels. But the essence of this transformation is the creation of a polycentric system of international relations. Thus, the objective of Russian foreign policy is to contribute to the creation of sustainable world system based primarily on the equality of all participants and non-interference in internal affairs, while maintaining the supremacy of international law in international relations, declaring full support for United Nations decisions and avoiding their unilateral and arbitrary interpretation.
During last couple of years Russian foreign policy and diplomacy has been consistent and coherent. The recent Russian military operation has succeeded in Syriain stopping the expansion of ISIL and in returning territories under legitimate control of the Syrian government.Russian experts jointly with UNESCO started demining and reconstruction of the Palmyra site and will try to bring back the destroyed world cultural heritage.The diplomatic efforts has helped to relieve the crisis and the negotiations are still in progress to resolve the situation once and for all. We strongly believe that regional problems and internal conflicts can be efficiently resolved by peaceful, political means and we oppose the vicious practice of imposing unilateral and arbitrary opinions and even more interfering in the internal affairs. In this light, the current crisis in Ukraine represents a serious challenge for the Ukrainian authorities, Russia and its Western partners. Russia holds firmly to the universal and exclusively peaceful way to resolve this crisis with Minsk agreements being the most realistic base for that. The nation-wide dialogue is necessary to reach full settlement and as Honorable Sergey Lavrov put it: “Russia is not going to change its position over Ukraine, because we believe it’s an honest position.”
The turbulent development of modern international relations makes Russia to secure its deserved place in the international arena. This brings new challenges and threats, but also gives an opportunity to a fresh start. Russian foreign policy maintains multiple-vector nature, it is open for cooperation on the principles of equality and respect of mutual interests with all those ready for that. Now it is high time for collective, collaborative actions in order to find adequate solutions to common challenges. The so-called “network diplomacy” is taking over the bloc approach. Russia put much effort into the formation of flexible target-oriented alliances with Russia’s active involvement, such as G20, BRICS etc. and this trend has its rationale.
The fact that the “centre of gravity” of the global growth is rapidly moving towards Asia and the Pacific has already become an axiom. It is justified that Asia-Pacific is one of the key priorities of Russia’s foreign policy. Russia is not only the European but also an Asian country( 2/3 of our territory is in Asia), due to its geographical position, history, cultural and religious links with the East. Thus, Russia is natural bridge between the East and the West. Historically, Russia has been inseparably connected with many countries of the AsiaPacific region. Russian support was one of the determinant factors contributing to the victory of national liberation movements in Asia. Concerning Russia’s foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific region Honorable Mr. Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, noted that “Russia’s first priority is to assume an active participation in regional architecture of security and cooperation”.
As mentioned above, Russia is a prominent member of regional multilateral and trans-regional associations such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), East Asian Summits, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), the Asia Cooperation Dialogue, the Eurasian Economic Unioncreated in 2015. All of these alliances serve as a link between Europe and AsiaPacific region, to fulfill in particular its economic interests of the member-states and promote economic cooperation with our Asian partners.
On this great occasion of the National Day of Russia let me congratulate all my compatriots who live here in Sri Lanka as well as our Sri Lankan friends. And I am sure we do have many friends here. Let me express my gratitude and appreciation to all organizations and institutions in Sri Lanka for contributing to strengthening of relations between our two countries and nations!
Long live the Russia-Sri Lanka friendship!