Transcripts For CSPAN Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov News Conference 20180116

Please be brief in your questions so that we can take as many questions as possible. We have a press conference in russian, but you will have some translations into other languages, and in the broadcast is available on our website and social media. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Hope you had a good holiday season. A good new year and we are very grateful to you for taking part in our annual press conference. I dont think i should spend a lot of time on my introductory remarks. Just recently, the president gave an end of the year press conference. A few days ago, president putin met with the editors in chief of Russian Media news agencies. I think you have been following these major events and you are familiar with the president s comments on those issues, including foreign policy. I will say briefly that once again, we have to say that this year was not easy. We see various hard spots around the world, and the middle east, northern africa, and the ukraine, our neighboring country. And in recent months, we sought serious excavations escalations because of the threats coming from washington. Threats to solve a Nuclear Issue on the Korean Peninsula through the use of force. We heard similar threats regarding afghanistan, using force to resolve the problem. Of course, statements intended to disrupt joined comprehensive plan on the Iranian Nuclear program, to further destabilize the situation. Unfortunately, our u. S. Partners and their allies still want to conduct affairs through dictating ultimatums, they are unwilling to listen to other centers of International Politics. They refuse to acknowledge the merging multipole of the world. The methods they used to deter their rivals are, for a large part, from the deployment of the global Missile Defense system, unilateral sanctions, territorial apical put applications of its laws, and to resolve International Issues based on their own scenario, including the use of brutal military force. As a result, we see International Law being undermined. National institutions losing their significance, and more and more as states build up their military might, which they regard as all most which they regard as guaranteeing their sovereignty under current circumstances. Therefore, we have been doing our best to protect russias national interest, and International Affairs, including the interest of our people, the interest of russian companies, which often are being discriminated against. And simultaneously, we do our best to protect International Law, the International System based on the u. N. Charter. Working together with other constructive forces, we have been upholding universal values of truth, mutual respect, and cooperation. Doing our best to present the degradation prevented the degradation of world order, which is seriously upset today. We want to do our best to prevent the world from descending into chaos and confrontation, specific areas of our work, i will comment on that when i answer your questions. I will only mention that this year, this new year will continue with our efforts in all those areas. This includes fighting terrorism, we saw progress with that in syria. Syria is at an important stage. We have been working with turkey and iran, preparing for a syrian Dialogue Congress. Where wide range of Syrian Forces will be participating as required by the Un Security Council resolution 2254. We will continue working on the Iranian Nuclear deal. We will seek normalization of the palestinianis rainy and conflict iranian conflict. They are complicated by the fact that the palestinian issue has not been resolved. Of course, we will also continue working on ukraine. A problem which can only be resolved by the package of measures adopted in february, 2015. Of course, we have a very important political event coming up. The president ial election. Our embassys consulates and Cultural Centers abroad will do everything necessary for russian people, currently abroad, to be able to vote conveniently. I will stop here and now i will start our an active part of our conversation. Reporter as he might know, the media publishes the rating of top words the top 10 words of the previous year. What would be your rating . Minister lavrov well, for the fear of being misunderstood, i will not talk about specific words. As far as stories are concerned, it is. It is syria. This is a problem where many interests of many players converge. Like i said, we do our best. There is this initiative of syrians in congress. We do our best to harmonize the interest of all the syrian parties and all the external players that can influence the situation. All those who would like to advance their interest in the region as part of the syrian process. This is a complex process. But like i said, we have reasons to believe that the group of iran and turkey which was able one year ago to launch a process to set up the deescalation zones and despite all the attempts to undermine these efforts, this Initiative Still proved effective. The other process stimulated the United Nations before we started. The u. N. Process did nothing for about 10 years. So i hope that the initiative involved in the Syrian National dialogue, congress will stimulate the u. N. To step up its efforts. In any case, the Sochi Congress pursues the goal of helping the geneva talks. And we clearly said as much to our colleagues, including the u. N. Leadership, and the countries involved in the syrian settlement. The second story of the year, i guess, the middle eastern general, the middle east and northern africa, because syrian settlement is just a part of a very complex nexus of problems existing in this region. I can mention libya, yemen, i have already mentioned the palestinianisraeli settlement which is experiencing a deep crisis. I still remain convinced that as in regards to the influence in the palestinianisraeli settlement, the deadend in setting up a palestinian state, this has a very negative effect on radicalization of the arabs. The ukraine is another subject which artificially is overinflated. And it is regarded as the grindstone and relations between the russian and the west. I think it is an absolutely politicized and erroneous approach. I wish they could abandon such a view which they used to view the i create ukraine crisis. The prism of confrontation between the authoritarian russia and the democratic west. They dont allow any double interpretation. If only we could focus on this. We would be able to resolve this conflict. We would not use ideological interpretation of the situation as something that means a lot to relations between russia and the west. This would allow our western partners to abandon their unconditioned support for kiev, which disrupts the agreements. This is another story of the year. I can also mention positive trends. The eurasian integration, the implementation of the greater eurasia project, including sco, this project is open to new participants in the east and the west alike. Of course, we need to grow in this process. These are groupings which embody the modern world. The objective process of the policy check central emerging. Of course, i may have forgotten something. But these are the stories we keep working on on a daily basis. Reporter i am from the c1 is agency. The leaders of russianchina said they would like to continue cooperating in International Affairs before the new year. What are the major International Issues where russia is counting on china . The organization will have its next summit in june in china. What are your expectations . I am very grateful to the moderator for letting you go second. You mentioned a subject which i did not mention when answering the first question regarding stories of the year. Of course, the Nuclear Problem of the Korean Peninsula is one of the most serious issues today. Russia and china have been working together closely on this matter, as you know. We have a joint initiative with china. Regarding a way to move from confrontation to political sediment settlement. To begin with, we suggest everybody should calm down and freeze any confrontational actions, especially conducting military drills. And launches of Missile Nuclear tests, and largescale maneuvers, conducted by the United States together with the republic of korea and japan. Once there is this moratorium in place, such a ban on hostile actions, we will absolutely support direct contact between the interested parties, including first and foremost, of course, pyongyang and washington. We will also provide support for this but dialogue as part of the six party process. Also, russia, china, japan, and the republic of korea. This, i think, is the most important item on the russiachina agenda. I would also like to say that working on these matters is not easy. Like i said, the United States says openly about the need for a military solution, even though everybody is aware direct consequences dire consequences of such reckless action. And in a situation where there was potential for dialogue, we saw provocative action like a military drills around north korea, which probed further escalation. We have a joint roadmap together with china. We will work based on it. We also Work Together on the syrian settlement, our chinese colleagues share russias position on this matter. What i mean is they believe that the conflict can only be resolved on the Un Security Council decision, which says there should be political dialogue without any preconditions involving all the forces in syria, including the government. And all key opposition movements. Reflecting the diversity of the syrian population, ethnically and religiously. We have another Important Initiative with china. Its a draft treaty on nondeployment of weapons in space. We put it forward several years ago at the u. N. Summit conference. Unfortunately, because of the position of the United States, this treaty is not currently being discussed. All the other countries on understand this is an important matter. But the United States continues to make plans to militarize a space in the sense of deploying weapons in outer space. Which of course, will make International Security issues much more difficult. By the way, at the conference, china cosponsored a draft of another important document on prevention of the use of chemical and biological weapons for terrorist purposes. Again, surprisingly, the United States opposed this move. Finally, in eurasia, we have been working closely consolidating our efforts for integration. China has its own initiative. The president of russia and the chairman of china have agreed to promote couplings of eurasian integration and the one belt, one road initiative. Members of the Eurasian Economic Union have been working together on a treaty on a trade deal with china. Simultaneously, we see context between them. Also open for asian country and countries to join in, they have signed agreements with the eae you, for talks. On the whole, this is what president putin calls the greater eurasia project. This looks very promising. Of course, we have to consider a number of important factors because there are a lot of economic interests at stake. But, everybody this initiative looks so promising because it is based on reallife. It doesnt set up specific frameworks in advance and moves on to practical things. No. The way we do it is i can give you a metaphor. You know how they lay paths in england. First they see where people find it comfortable for them to walk, convenient for them to walk. After that, they make paths pathways. This is the way we work on the greater eurasia project. I can give you a long list of other initiatives that russia and china have in common. But, i think i can stop here. The key items where we Work Together. Reporter mr. Lavrov, in 1988, russia ratified an agreement on frenchman friendship with ukraine. I guess it was 1998. But in 2014, this agreement is no longer relevant. But it was automatically prolonged for 10 years if it was not announced. You have to what will you do . Will you automatically prolonged this agreement or will you denounce this agreement . Again, you are an expert in International Affairs. What is your advice to your leadership . Minister lavrov i did not get your second part. Reporter so, what will you do . Will russia denounce this treaty or will it automatically prolonged it, or if you do not know yet what russia will do, what will you as an authority, expert in International Affairs, what will you advise to your leadership . Minister lavrov if i dont know what to advise, ohio how will i advise . Jokes aside, i got your question. We have someone who raised this issue the other day. He said one of the sections was on respect for territorial sovereignty and this provision is no longer relevant because try me a had a referendum and the people of crimea area decided to become independent and join russia. For me, this is not really a relevant issue international issue. International documents are important. It is up to the lawyers. Politically, we continue to respect territorial integrity of ukraine and the borders following the crime he referendum. After they reunited with russia. There have been many lego leaves egalese questions on that, including on the budapest memorandum. According to the budapest memorandum, ukraine said it will no longer have its nuclear start. Again, we have never threatened ukraine with nuclear weapons. So it means there have been no violation of the budapest meant memorandum. But in a separate protocol, the ukraine said this will not provoke racist, new not these, neonazis. But what happened after the protests was a gross violation of that commitment. Politically, i assure you, as president putin reiterated once again, we seek the full implementation of the agreements without any admissions and that is fully in line with our respect for territorial integrity for ukraine and its current borders following the referendum that was held with International Law. Reporter but, we are talking about the 1998 borders and territorial integrity in terms of 1998. So maybe this treaty needs to be modernized. Minister lavrov with all due respect, the issue you just raised, the it only distracts us from the bottom line. The bottomline is that ukraine has subscribed to the minsk a cause. The cause is nothing to do with crimea. We need to focus on pushing the key authorities to deliver on what they committed to and what is also part of the Security County Council resolution. I do think we should diverge and discuss what we should do with this international treaty. I think the cause is much more important. It was unanimous miss unanimously approved by the Un Security Council. We know from our private conversations, our colleagues, counterparts, in the west, fully understand the tactics of the key authorities towards the minsk accords. They see that as our ukrainian neighbors have made repeated attempts to use force to resolve a situation. But, in fact, what they do is they ignore the efforts that need to be taken as part of the minsk at cordes. I dont want to hypothesize. I dont want it to be seen as disregard for International Law. But, actually, it is International Law was ignored and disregarded by those stoked up the mind on protests. In february, 2014, an agreement was reached between thenpresident mr. Yanukovych and leaders of the opposition. It was signed in the president presence of poland and france. The next day, it was torn to pieces by the opposition. It was the western counterparts that were present at the signing ceremony. They actually betrayed the ukrainian nation because the agreement put forward a government. Instead, they had the government of winners, and then there was a convention that united, brought together mps of the east and the south. They decided to assume authority and control over their territory, so they never took any military action. But on the 23rd of february, the National Parliament passed a law on the languages and it was a lot that send a signal. On the 26th of february, the two leaders sanctioned the use of force by the right sector, to storm the Supreme Council to building the parliament tilting of crimea. It was five days after european leaders were not able to push the authorities to deliver on their commitments. So, again, five days after the coup, the key authorities used sanctions against key of force against the crimea parliament. Again, the Referendum Movement started after that when the crimeans realized they had nothing to do, and they wanted nothing to do with the key of authorities. The use of force and the sanctioning is a clear violation of the budapest memorandum of International Law. First of all, we would like those who violated first to sober up and behave accordingly. Reporter in january, there was a poll conducted and 60 of the russian people and said the United States was a hostile country. The situation is somewhat similar. 64 to 70 print 72 of the American People who view russia as an enemy. Could you please comment on these said figures and maybe answer the question, whom or what we should blame for seeing enemies in each other . Minister lavrov president putin made multiple statements on this issue. It is not an egg and chicken problem. Rather, it is a problem of your opinion, of your worldview. The americans are known for their feeling of superiority. President has not said that. But President Trump has not said that. But the elite and American Leadership clearly indicates that they still rely on this mentality. It would be one thing if there would be positive examples if they had fair competition, but this is the reality is it is the other way around. The west is losing its dominance that they have had for at least five centuries. There are objective process is underway. It is the course of history that leads to the emergence of new power centers, new power houses. The end it the International System needs to be adapted so that there is equal dialogue, operations, involving those new power houses. They need to be part of the decisionmaking process. But, the u. S. Is not doing this. It resorts to illegal means. Trying to get back their role in International Politics that is being eroded. The u. N. Charter is a very important document. It sets forth a number of rules that have to be complied with. I dont think we need to modify this document. Although, we are in favor of reforming the Un Security Council, and this process is underway. We made first and foremost to respect each other. And we need to coordinate our positions. This is something that the u. S. Is missing out on, particularly with the Current Administration in place. Once the initiative from washington is counted with criticism, always counter efforts, they immediately get angry or start to threaten their counterparts with sanctions. Certainly, the shaping of the multi polar world is a long process. The World Economy is growing in cycles. It is not the west, and is not the u. S. That tries economic growth. It is a painful process. You need to put up with this. But there is no other alternative. Certainly, the u. S. Is trying to follow an alternative, ultimatums, some sanctions, trying to punish the european companies, businesses. Again, they use extraterritorial principle of applying their laws. And the Trump Administration has taken on some of the legacy, some of the principles from the Obama Administration, and they have even become aggressive on some issues. So the u. S. Administration is afraid of fair competition in energy, and as it applies to europe. You are aware of this. Which is several times more expensive. Again, the project has been countered by some of the forces, they say, that is used to strangle ukraine. It would be bad for europe. But if you take germany, as an example, it is 2000 kilometers shorter than by the ukraine. It is almost two times cheaper than ukraine. Lets take the Defense Sector of russia. We have been severely sanctioned. The only purpose, and it is clear for me, is to prevent our Defense Sector from growing. I think you need to have a level playing field, instead of banning or pushing countries to not to buy russian weapons. Take the media, you have a biased attitude to rt, sputnik, and in france, we have seen the same. Russian journalists and Russian Media have been banned. Just recently, the french president said they need to introduce rules to fight fake news. But there will be one regulated regulator that will define what is fake news and what is not fake news. And there will be no dialogue on that. Take sports. There have been multiple events ahead of the upcoming olympics, there have been measures taken against russian athletes. I have no doubt in our and our president said as much as there have been incidents where athletes have used illegal substances, there have never been cases before when collective punishment has been used. Clearly, it is a way to punish russia, to hurt its pride, and also to avoid fair competition. I have just given you examples that you can clearly see on the websites, media, russians read this. They analyze this information. Digest it. Opinion polls do matter, but i believe the u. S. Administration demonizes russia. They are most responsible for the Public Opinion that we have today. We cannot use those actions, always in response to what the u. S. Has been doing, we are trying to act in a more balanced way. But we cannot put up with all the illegal actions the u. S. Has been doing. You might also remember the unprecedented story where our diplomatic property was seized. We are now launching proceedings, court proceedings. Social media users are aware of it, of all those stories. And when these kind of stories are happening, you cannot convince our audience and our social media users but the u. S. Is the best place in the world. A question from syrian journalists. Reporter mr. Lavrov, what do you think about the talks of geneva . Are there any shifts in the position of donald trump on the Syrian Crisis . Minister lavrov he asked an hour talks which are covered extensively. We embarked on this process after the failure of the Obama Administration to distinguish between the u. S. Controlled opposition from terrorist groups. President obama and president putin met in september in china in 2016. There was an agreement on that. Following that, together with the john kerry, we drafted an initiative for the u. S. Which the u. S. Failed to deliver on their commitment. They were unwilling or they did not want to crackdown on it. We still have that fear, and we are getting more evidence that this is exactly the case. The u. N. Was idle at that point. Together, with turkey and iran, we decided to act, to put forward a plan that would rely on the situation, and start to engage the syrian position. We later met in the capital of kurdistan with the Syrian Government representatives before the escalation zones were set up. Syria it was set up with jordan, the u. S. , and russia. The level of violence went down drastically. There are places that are trying to destabilize the organizations that signed the agreements, they are experiencing additional pressure. They had several raids against the syrian army. At the same time, there have been provocations against the russian airbase we had to respond because these were direct violations of the deescalation agreement. Some of our western part counterparts are saying it is the syrian side that is violating the agreement. But this is exactly the opposite. We very much hope our turkish counterparts will complete the deployment of the remaining checkpoints around the deescalation zones. They currently have three, but overall there needs to be 20 checkpoints. And we have contacted our counterparts in turkey. They said they will try to complete at the deployment. We hope this will help to resolve the situation. We have a similar situation. Western politicians have been raising a lot of buzz about the alleged operation alleged offensive of the syrian army. Again, every step the syrian army is taking, it is taking in response to the raids by the shelling of damascus. Including where the Russian Embassy is located we cannot turn a blind eye to it. We have crack down on those illegal actions. Moving ahead, in line with the agreements there will be additional steps taken. An exchange of prisoners of war and other confidence building measures. It will help to lunch the reconciliation process on the ground. In those areas where deescalation zones have been set up. We mentioned it several times that the process is in no competition with the geneva process, and we also always have u. N. Representatives. The Upcoming National Dialogue Congress will contribute to it. And the resolution said that the u. N. Security council provided for a broad representation of syrian opposition. But what we had in geneva, those are people who leave. These are people who are immigrants. The syrian dialogue will focus on efforts to launch the political process. And will also engage, most importantly, the opposition figures our inside syria, not only those who arent against openly against the Syrian Governments, but there are tribal leaders, but they live in this country and certainly have a say. Their opinion needs to be taken into account when talking about the future of syria. Is there any difference between the Trump Administrations policy and the Obama Administration policy . I dont think there is any drastic difference. Unfortunately, both cases, we are seeing the u. S. Is not actually helping to put up flames of the conflict. They are helping those who are seeking a regime change in syria. I said it once, that rex tillerson, just like john kerry, assured me the only goals, why the u. S. Is present in syria, with its navy and its special operations personnel, is dismantling terrorism. Dismantling isis. The u. S. Says there are still hotbeds of violence. There are still pockets of resistance by isis. But even if you take it into account the things we have been observing, indicates the u. S. Did not want to keep syria as a state in its current borders. Just recently, we had an initiative that the u. S. Wants to help the Democratic Syria forces to set up some border zones, Border Security zones. What it would mean is that a vast swath of territory alongside the border of turkey and iraq will be isolated. Its to the east of the river, you know, there are difficult relations between curves and arabs. If you say this zone will be controlled, by forces supported by the u. S. That will be a force of 30,000 people, that is a big deal. There are a lot of question marks. There is a fear that they are pursuing a policy to cut syria into several pieces. Again, there is nothing in the u. S. Security Council Resolutions that have been pointing to that, or there is nothing in the previous agreements. We are expecting clarification from the u. S. On that. Reporter mr. Lavrov, i represent the media. One question, it is also on syria. The armed forces of turkey launched at least 40 strikes against the position of syria kurds over the last 24 hours. What is russias position on this issue . My second question, on the conflict between her bill and baghdad, conflicts between them continues. Dozens of kurds have been killed, and over 200,000 kurds are now refugees. What role can russia play in the resolution of the conflict . Thank you. Minister lavrov the answer to the second question is very simple. Whatever role is acceptable and whatever role they are adjusted in. We support iraqs territorial integrity. We believe all problems should be resolved through talks a and national dialogue. Need someties mediatorship and fresh is invited, we will regard this positively. And its regard the situation in a subject ons which we should all Work Together. Specifically, we want Ceasefire Ceasefire agreement to be implemented, and of course, kurds are part of the syrian nation, and their interests should be taken into account in this work that we now do, including the work we do preparing for the Syrian National Dialogue Congress. But i mentioned that there is a new initiative, a new project by the United States. Border security forces. Relying on Syrian Democratic forces, with the kurdish troops. As you know, turkey responded negatively to that, and i said that we have serious questions as far as the territorial integrity. This is a problem because of a problem between kurds and turkey. And the fact that this new project, this new unilateral, ultimatumlike depth does not help calm down this situation with the fringe. [indiscernible] channel one tv station. President donald trump said last week that the last time that it extends the freeze on iran sanctions, what are the consequences . We have responded to this situation. We believe that the joint comprehensive point of action on the Iranian Nuclear deal on the program is one of the biggest achievements of the International Community as far as stabilizing the situation in the middle east is concerned. It is absolutely necessary to deter the process of erosion of the nonproliferation regime. We have made our situation known to the United States repeatedly. When we first heard doubts from washington regarding the need to maintain the comprehensive action plan on the Iranian Nuclear deal program, together with the chinese and European Partners in this deal, we told washington that we believe such an approach would the destructive and will result in unpredictable consequences. Unfortunately, it remained unheeded, and so far, we were unable to make the United States change its of view. We will continue insisting that the United States should recognize the reality. And the reality is iran has been abiding by its obligation under the nuclear deal, as verified by the director general. They did not have any complaints about iran on compliance. Now, what the United States is trying to accomplish is basically change the text of the agreement by including provisions which would be totally unacceptable for iran. We would never support that access to any facility immediately whenever required, this goes beyond the existing agreement. Unlimited. Denial of irans rights under the nonproliferation treaty in the charter, and at the same time, there is an attack on iran, generally. The United States wants iran to stop developing ballistic missiles, which has never been a subject of talks, and iran has never made any such commitments. More abstractly, they want iran to stop meddling in other countries affairs in the region. Violating human rights at home. There is an attack, sanctions be region. A package of sanctions being imposed on iran being prepared including the socalled , violations that go beyond the nuclear deal. This is deplorable because, in just a few months, we will have another review, and if the United States decides to escalate, i dont even want to think about consequences, woulde it ran iran think it is no longer bound by the comprehensive joint action plan. I hope that our European Partners, and of course, the americans are going to put a lot of pressure on them right now. I really hope that they will abide by the comprehensive action plan, which was approved by the Un Security Council resolution. Which is binding for all the parties. It is deplorable that the United States, once again, gave us reason to believe that they are unreliable. As one of the basic consequences, i go back to the Nuclear Problem of the Korean Peninsula. If they want to suspend his military nuclear program, offering to lift sanctions. This was the essence of the deal between International Community and iran, so if this treaty is now canceled, and iran is told that it should abide by its commitments and sanctions, it will be reimposed. What would you do if you are the leader of north korea . They say they will lift sanctions. If north korea suspends its military nuclear program, but then, the next day, they can cancel their promise. Take it back. By the way, today, in vancouver, there will be a meeting on north korea called by the u. S. And canada. Including countries that were members of the u. N. Led coalition. During the korean war of 1953, when we found out about this meeting, we asked why do you need all these countries together . Greece, belgium, luxembourg, columbia, what do they have to do with the Korean Peninsula today . And what are they going to do there at this conference . The americans love us this is important because you want to expand support for our joint efforts. When we asked them about the agenda, they said the agenda is to come up with a mechanism for additional pressure on pyongyang. Just a couple of weeks ago, there was another resolution. They say that they will call this meeting in think hoover. In vancouver. Russian media were not invited. They told us this meeting will start later today, and then on the 16th russia antenna can come on the evening. On the 16th. We will tell you what we have worked out. We said this was unacceptable, and we insisted that the u. N. Should not accept an invitation to this meeting as well. So speaking out the methods and manners of american diplomats, yesterday or the day before, there was a briefing at the state department, and there was a question asked why did you decide not to invite russia and china in vancouver . The answer the spokesperson gave was evasive. We discussed this with moscow and beijing, and both countries support these efforts, support this conference. This is an outright lie. We openly said we think this meeting is harmful, so lets wait and see. But at this point, part of me i dont know what the European Countries position will be like. They are suggesting looking for a compromise. I think, gradually, this situation may interior eight. May deteriorate. I have a question. In light of the events you mentioned with the loss of your diplomatic compound and investigations underway into alleged russian meddling in the United States, the current relationship between russia and the u. S. Seems worse than under president obama. After one year of President Trump and considering the possibility of additional sanctions in the coming weeks and months, do you personally ever regret the day that donald trump became president . Do you ever wish that Hillary Clinton was sitting in the white house instead . Minister lavrov you know, this is not what diplomats do, regretting about things that have happened. We work with facts. Facts are what we have today. So we just do what needs to be done to advance russias interests under current circumstances. Mr. Lavrov, thank you. I would like to go back to the middle east. Regarding the recent statement, he said he accused israel of putting an end to the oslo peace deal. He called trumps proposal on the israelipalestinian agreement a flat in the face of the century. We have commented on this situation and trumps announcement regarding moving the u. S. Embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem, and we commented even more on the detrimental effect on the risks regarding this that end settlement, and we completely understand the emotions that palestinians feel today. For years, stepbystep, they have been making unilateral concessions without getting anything in return. And like i said, they were ready for direct talks with israel without any preconditions. And we were ready to receive them here in russia. Russia has a platform for such talks, but so far, we have not had such direct contacts with any conditions. Under current circumstances, i think chances of this happening are close to zero, which is sad. At the same time, we have been hearing for a few months that the United States was about to publish a big deal that would sort out on the problems and make everybody we have not seen such a document. We have not seen or heard anything like that. Once again, the fact that the palestinian problem remains unresolved is one of the biggest factors that help radicals recruit new members for their movements. Future terrorists. My israeli colleagues used to be offended with me for such statements, but all serious analysts understand the statistics for the region. At the same time, this should not discourage us. There should not be any breakdown in contacts between the two parties. I really hope that, soon, we should be able to have consultations with our partners, in addition to the United States. This includes the United Nations and the european union. We will have a brainstorming session on what we should do next. We cannot allow the situation to drift. I hear there are ideas in palestine to absolve the national administration, the national authority, and declare palestine an occupied territory, and leave the responsibility for the functioning of this territory for all the systems, for the way people lived there. But the entire responsibility is put on israel. I hope that we are able to find a way out of the situation like that. We will have consultations with other partners in the quartet, including bilateral contact with the United States. Reporter good afternoon. In 2007, russia and pakistan had multiple contacts on fighting terrorism, antidrug trafficking, and on afghanistan. What about 2018 . What is to be expected . Minister lavrov you are right, saying we should step up our efforts fighting terrorism together. We are interested in confronting the terrorist threat, which includes pakistan, afghanistan, and spills over your border with afghanistan. We want to see this threat neutralized, and our agreement to supply pakistan with special equipment, including helicopters for antiterrorist units, is another indication of how serious we are. In addition to that, we also have our interests in developing economic cooperation. Of course, pakistan, just like india, became a full member of the organization which provides us with additional opportunities for working together in many different areas, because the fcl is a structure that on the one hand ensures security in our region, including fighting new threats. And at the same time, this institution is intended to develop economic and humanitarian cooperation, so i think russianpakistan ties will also benefit from that. Speaking of fighting extremism, i would like to mention that there was an important document signed by the leaders last year. I mean, the convention on fighting extremism. This convention sets up a very important framework, including the principle that it is unacceptable to use terrorist and extremist groups in the interest of putting pressure on sovereign states. We see many examples of that including libya, when gaddafi was ousted, and such attempts, we also observed them in syria. So i think this was an important convention. India and pakistan joined this convention, and in addition to sco members, we see that other countries are interested in joining it to coast it is open. It is not limited to sco members only. Reporter this year, japanese Prime Minister abe will visit russia, and you will go to tokyo. We had a question from the bbc, but what about you . Are you planning to visit japan . And what is your mission . What possible agreements or documents will be signed . When will this meeting take place in tokyo . Before the march election or after the president ial election . Just recently, we have encountered no problems new problems at the deployment of the new system in japan. It is the antiMissile Defense. Our japanese Authorities Say it is different from the one installed in korea and the one installed in europe. And it is japan that controls this antimissile system. It is not part of the u. S. Global antimissile system. They also said it is not possible to use tomahawks in this system. What is russias response to it . Minister lavrov good things first. Yes, we are looking forward to Prime Minister abes visit to russia. We have an agreement for the Foreign Ministers to meet in the run up to this visit. The date of the ministers meeting will be determined at a time for both parties. As for our specific plans, the Prime Minister and the president will look into the implementation of the agreement on joint Economic Development of disputed territories. We have five areas we focus on. It is a limited scale project. We hope we will add some other industries to this project. And deputy Foreign Ministers have been working on that. We are happy that the two plus two talks have been resumed between the Foreign Ministers and the defense ministers. The chief of the russian generals talked here recently, and prior to that, the commander of the army went there, and there was a meeting of the bilateral commission, and simultaneously, a colleague, of moscow, we had talks here. So now, we will set a date for a new meeting, like i said. Economic cooperation, apart from joint Economic Development, has been doing quite well. We have japanese investors in russia, japanese banks, provided a serious amount of money in loans for the project, and this longterm investment. It adds stability to our cooperation. Humanitarian contacts, as always, have been strong. In addition to the annual russian culture festival, last year, we had cultural seasons, and we are quite happy with what we have been doing in our interaction with japan. We would like to coordinate closer on the international arena. We discussed this during our two plus two meetings, and of course, we would like japan to be more independent when discussing key International Issues and international organizations. The Missile Defense issue is a dark cloud in our relations. Let me be frank about that. We talked to our japanese partners. They offered all those arguments. They said that this system that will be deployed in japan is different from what south korea has and what they have in europe. We dont have this data. The data we have indicates the system to be deployed in japan uses universal launchers which can use strike missiles. We heard that, supposedly, japan will control this system. The United States will not have any control over the system, but we still have our doubts about that. As part of our Security Dialogue between the secretaries of the Security Councils of russia and japan, we would like to receive more substantial assurances on that. We are not aware of any cases anywhere around the globe where the United States would deploy its weapons, and then would hand over control over those weapons to the host country. And i really doubt that the United States would make in the case of japan. We are open to dialogue. We would like to have a dialogue on Missile Defense, something that we suggested years ago. We want to start. We want all of us to see clearly that this Missile Defense system we have a number of questions on what the United States does in this regard. We dont want these systems to destabilize. The International System so far are u. S. Partners like the Obama Administration and the Bush Administration before them will tell us the systems will not be used. We have evidence showing this is not true. Reporter estonian television. Mr. Lavrov, in 2014, you signed an agreement on the border with estonia and with your counterpart. It took place in 2015 i the Estonian Parliament. In other words, an arrangement will take place in sync, estonia having waited for two years for the First Reading of that agreement, and to russian parliament. In 2015, there was a meeting, and you promised that parliament will start its process soon. Soon is when . Minister lavrov there is some background to this story. The first signed the treaty in 2005. There were politicized caveats. Yet, the Estonian Parliament ratified this treaty and added to the ratification treaty a reference to the agreement, which openly states that their territorial claims remain. This is a violation this was a violation of the commitments made by my colleagues. Then we revoked our treaty. When you remove this reference to the agreement, we will be able to restart those talks and sign this treaty. Eventually, this happened, and we did sign this new treaty. Once again, we made an agreement that the process will be synchronized. You read about that, but you mentioned the number one condition, which was that there will be nonconfrontational atmosphere between the ruling in both countries. We maintained our part of the deal. We did not want any attacks against estonia. But the estonian government did not show such restraint. On the contrary, the rhetoric was extremely russiaphobic. We said people would not understand that if we promoted the treaty in such an environment. At the same time, the border is there and the treaty will be ratified. Nobody questions this porter. This border. But for the treaty to go into effect, and for us to go back to normal life, what you should do is stop being one of the three or four mostactive countries in the nato and in the european union, promoting russophobia. Like i said, we have very good relations with the people of estonia. Our peoples friends and politicians should be guarded by this, not by some shortterm Political Goals reflecting geopolitical interests of other countries, but by the interests of their people. Thank you. Cspan where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was treated as a Public Service by americas american americas public Cable Companies and is brought by your cable or satellite provider. Sunday on q a. Author and Harvard Law School professor noah feldman and his book the three lives of James Madison come a genius, president. The constitution is all around you when you come to washington, d. C. The threepart structure of government, the way the government interacts, the way people speak to each other, the exercise of free speech. All of that is madisons monument. As was the case in st. Pauls where if you seek his monument look around you. Inyou seek madison washington look around you and you will see it everywhere. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Live events include kirstjen oversightd the senate hearing. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee being briefed on Energy Production outlooks and fda commissioner. Cott gottlieb the housemates in the afternoon to consider a bill to create a special commemorative coin. The White House Holds a at empoweringd women. The Senate Considers the reauthorization of part of the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act. Theign ambassadors discuss global perception of the United States. On cspan3. We will hear the Supreme Court argument. Hinging on a drivers right to a reasonable expectation of privacy. Arguments go for about an hour. Hear argument in bird versus the u. S. Mr. Chief justice, may it please the court. This case