FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEY LAVROV CONGRATULATES MINISTRY PERSONNEL ON DIPLOMATIC WORKER DAY, MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 10, 2015

I would like to congratulate all diplomatic service employees on Diplomatic Worker Day.

This holiday was instituted in 2002 by President Vladimir Putin. Since then, it has symbolised a combination of our efforts to address current tasks with continuity, respect for the memory of our predecessors and the preservation of traditions of Russian diplomacy, which has always served the Fatherland, and which has always been renowned for its high professionalism and creative approach to work.

The current complicated global situation is the result of problems that have accumulated over the past 20 years. First of all, this situation is linked with contradictions between the objective process of establishing a truly polycentric, democratic and equitable international system, on the one hand, and the striving of the “historical West” to preserve its dominant positions in the world at any price and to the detriment of all other countries, on the other. This contradiction has not been resolved yet. We are witnessing the consequence of a clash between an objective and a subjective process.

Russia firmly insists on the need to respect international law, to conduct collective talks solely on the basis of a balance of interests, rather than by imposing the interests of some countries on others. We will consistently defend the independent foreign policy line of Russia in accordance with the national Foreign Policy Concept, the basis for all our foreign policy actions.

We are addressing the acute crisis in Ukraine from these positions. We want to help resolve this crisis using only diplomatic methods and through direct dialogue between Kiev authorities and the opposition that has proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics. We will help settle other contemporary conflicts, including those in the Middle East and North Africa, from the very same positions.

I would like to note that we are implementing our active line at various multilateral venues, primarily the United Nations and the UN Security Council, the G20, the SCO and BRICS. In July 2015, Russia will host the SCO and BRICS summits in Ufa.

We realise that we are assuming special responsibility in line with the global situation and Russia’s foreign policy tasks. I am confident that every diplomatic service employee at the Chief Administration and at Russian missions abroad will work in the most responsible way possible and creatively, helping to address common tasks being set by national leaders.

I congratulate all diplomatic service personnel, former diplomats, their families and friends on this holiday, and I wish them every success and all the best.