THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
official site

Question: Please tell us when the tradition of the President’s meetings with diplomats originated and is this practice widespread abroad?

Andrey Denisov: Since the beginning of the 21st century meetings with the President of the Russian Federation have been regularly held on Smolensk Square every two years in the format of a conference of RF ambassadors to various countries. This year too, such a meeting is traditionally planned for mid-year. In timing, the conferences coincide with the arrival of our ambassadors and permanent representatives for vacation, although there is no direct tie to that. The country’s President traditionally speaks there, as well as heads of leading economic agencies, in particular those of the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Finance. An important part of a conference is meetings of sections on various areas of our work – for example, the section on cooperation with international organizations, on the development of relations within the CIS, on economic and public diplomacy, and country and regional sections.

Meetings of our ministry aktiv with heads of state already in the Russian period of our history were also held before. Boris Yeltsin would visit the ministry and speak to our diplomats. But on an orderly, systematic footing, these meetings were put ten years ago during President Vladimir Putin’s tenure. This year we are waiting for Dmitry Medvedev at our ministry for the second time. We expect that he will speak on key topical issues relating to foreign policy and the functioning of our diplomatic service. Such meetings are a widespread international practice. Of course, every country has its own specifics: somewhere they are held on a regular basis, somewhere to the extent necessary. Interesting is the experience of inviting foreign diplomats and heads of diplomatic services to such meetings.

Question: Do you plan to use it?

Andrey Denisov: There are no immediate plans, but why not think about such practice for the future? After all, the main expectation of a foreign audience will be associated with a speech of the President, the Head of State, in which interesting ideas are normally expressed or foreign policy issues raised in a fresh manner.

Question: The publications of the first (2000) and Second (2008) versions of the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation were timed for the previous meetings with the President. Toward the present meeting, given the serious shifts on the world stage and emergence of a polycentric international system, the Ministry is developing a new conceptual document?

Andrey Denisov: In the literal sense of the word, we are not preparing such a conceptual open document this time around. The second Foreign Policy Concept version, approved in 2008 is by definition a long-term, forward-looking and not depending on political expediency document. The national leadership sees no need to introduce any radical changes to it. In addition, the Government has adopted a number of major documents not directly concerning the sphere of foreign policy, but one way or another reflecting these questions. For example, we are co-participants in the implementation of the Foreign Economic Strategy of the Russian Federation to 2020, the Transport Strategy and the Energy Strategy to 2030, and several other conceptual documents. Of course, we would like at this meeting to take an “inventory” of the plans in the foreign policy sector and provide guidance for further action.

Question: At the previous meeting in the Foreign Ministry, President Medvedev showed particular interest in young diplomats. How do you replenish your ranks?

Andrey Denisov: With the rising complexity in the processes of global development, the ever greater intertwining of economic and political challenges, and the growing civil society influence on the shaping of foreign policy, diplomatic services of various countries, including the Russian Federation have to re-organize themselves to meet the spirit of the times. Our diplomatic service has long ceased to be a caste corps and is a completely open system. Only the high qualification requirements for job applicants are retained. Now we recruit graduates from some 17 universities in Russia with a reliable working knowledge of at least two foreign languages.

The diplomatic work of our foreign agencies and the central apparatus is constructed in an ever more balanced way at all the “floors” of international intercourse, from arranging meetings of presidents and prime ministers and their participation in major international events to assisting in tackling the matters of ordinary citizens now in great numbers going abroad. Extremely important is the work on easing the visa regime in relations with countries and regions, as well as on legal provisions relating to the conditions of stay of our citizens abroad.

Question: With the abolition of compulsory registration of Russians abroad with our consulates to help them, apparently, is not easy...

Andrey Denisov: This is a constitutional right of our citizens. However, they often need registration with the consulate themselves. It is much easier to assist our citizens in solving the problems encountered, having an idea about them and knowing whom to contact in their interests. We also can only recommend that our citizens avoid or limit travel to a country when troublesome events occur there. I would advise listening carefully to such recommendations. Our embassies are usually relatively small in size, operate within a strict regulatory framework established by the host country as well as our internal instructions based on Russian law. Everything in this framework is used to secure the interests of the state and its individual representatives (government bodies or economic entities and companies) and those of private citizens traveling abroad.

Question: Having got into the press in May, the “Program on efficient and systematic use of the foreign policy factors for long-term development of the Russian Federation” allegedly developed in the depths of the Foreign Ministry is somehow timed to coincide with the meeting with the President or is it a fake?

Andrey Denisov: Let us leave it on the conscience of those who publish without permission documents no one knows how obtained. I will say about a more important thing. The main political document that determines our country’s development for a one-year term is the President’s Address to the Federal Assembly. It always contains basic political guidelines and foreign policy goals. The last (autumn 2009) Address contained a number of fundamentally important directives of the Head of State to impart to our foreign policy more pragmatism and effectiveness in a bid to help the overall refocusing of the vector of our development toward modernization and the creation of conditions for an innovation spurt. The Foreign Ministry cannot stand aloof from these programmatic assumptions. We are constantly thinking about giving our foreign policy greater efficiency precisely in terms of the subordination of all our activities to the task of modernizing the country.

Question: But the Foreign Ministry also engaged in this before, didn’t it? The phrases like “diplomatic support for business” and “economic diplomacy” have even gained wide currency...

Andrey Denisov: Today it is about putting this work on a systemic and pragmatic footing. We’ve even devised, mainly for ourselves, the criteria for effectiveness. Areas that are systemizable include trade growth, investment flows into the economy, reduction of the degree of risk in carrying out foreign economic activity, and the diminution of obstacles and barriers, often political, restricting our access to a number of foreign markets. The criteria are how we advance our interests in international organizations, especially the economic, trade and political ones, and create a more favorable image of our country, particularly our investment, economic, and partnership reputation. Quite specific foreign policy actions are being carried out for this purpose.

Question: In the context of facilitating the comprehensive modernization of Russia, have there appeared any new aspects to the Foreign Ministry’s work with the regions of the country?

Andrey Denisov: We are currently working with the regions quite effectively. We hold the presentations of their economic and investment potential, both in Moscow, at the Ministry Reception House premises where the foreign diplomatic corps is invited, and abroad using the facilities of Russian embassies. As far as we know, regional leaders and the business community have a favorable opinion of this form of work.

Question: Returning to the criteria for the effectiveness of the Foreign Ministry’s work, how to divide the results achieved through the work of the foreign affairs and foreign economic agencies?

Andrey Denisov: Why divide? We must not divide but multiply and add! A good political climate in relations and progressing trade and investment ties are interdependent. Speaking about the development of political relations, we always mean that for their strength it is necessary to provide a material base in the form of business cooperation. By bidding on business cooperation, we understand the need for a good political climate and the reduction of foreign policy risks. In practical terms we work closely with the partners in other departments, especially in the Ministry of Economic Development. Their policy papers also incorporate our input. And our documents, too, as they relate to economic relations, are of course prepared with regard for the ideas and suggestions of our partners. We orient our representatives abroad, embassies and trade missions (where they exist) on the joint implementation of common tasks. This also applies to work in such an important instrument of practical pursuit of foreign economic ties as intergovernmental commissions. Their work is above all a concern of the Economic Development Ministry, but on a country by country basis ensuring the activities of governmental commissions also requires the active participation of the Foreign Ministry. Over the years we have developed ways to jointly promote the economic interests of Russia abroad.

Question: The 2009/2010 foreign policy season has proved to be rich in meetings in multilateral formats – the Group of Eight, Group of Twenty, BRIC and RIC... Does the Foreign Ministry have a scale of priorities in the multipolar diplomacy being conducted by Russia?

Andrey Denisov: In all these structures, the role of the Foreign Ministry is great or leading, although in the Group of Twenty, a relatively new international institution, originally established to tackle the problem of exiting the financial and economic crisis, the leaders are the Ministry of Finance and other economic agencies and entities. But the Foreign Ministry is also actively involved in this work. None of the formats contains rivalry, for the pursuit of state policy and national interest always has an integrated character. To talk about the priorities of multipolar diplomacy is, perhaps, not entirely practical. BRIC, RIC – they are a phenomenon of the relatively new “network diplomacy.” This term, not yet fully accepted even in the political science community, implies the creation of “interest groups” to realize common aspirations in international political or economic questions. These mechanisms of interaction between political leaders of states are created to discuss particular issues of interest to them. They do not have stable structures, secretariats or permanent bodies.

Since we began talking about priorities, the main and absolute priority for us is the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). These are our immediate neighbors, our “relatives” with whom we long lived under one roof. Today we live in different houses, but often with contiguous walls. In 2011 comes the 20th anniversary of the CIS, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s demise, a holiday with a tinge of sadness. For, as has been aptly said, he who does not feel sorry for the USSR has no heart, but he who thinks that the Soviet Union can be restored is deprived of mind. So let's look forward and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the CIS, which, despite the inherent difficulties associated with the development of our states, and sometimes brought in by the artificial politicization of certain aspects of our life, does exist and will continue to exist as a mechanism useful and necessary for all member countries.

Question: Sometimes it seems that the G20 and G8 have pushed the CIS to the backyard of Russia's foreign policy...

Andrey Denisov: I would not say so. In different formats different issues are tackled. In the CIS it is about much more practical areas of cooperation, close to economic life and simply to people's lives. There are the strategy for economic development and the concept of economic cooperation, along with an implementation plan for the Commonwealth, in which all CIS states participate in one way or another. We have a set of many sectoral agreements (about 70) and the organ of sectoral cooperation, the Council. At the base of economic cooperation always lies self-interest. There are no levers for artificial drawing into the integration process, nor can there be. It is always a conscious choice of a state. Therefore, realizing the integration possibilities in the CIS space is up to the countries themselves.

Question: The Russian expert community is intensively discussing the problem of the “spatial development of Russia.” How is the Foreign Ministry constructing a politico-geographical balance?

Andrey Denisov: The geographic factor in both domestic and foreign policy has always been taken into account. For Eurasian Russia, which is the world’s largest country in length of borders, it is especially important. Therefore, relations with our neighbors are built so that they contribute to the balanced state, including geographical, of our internal development. When embarking on the realization of projects in various parts of the Russian Federation, the government regards them as “growth points” with the active use of the external factor. To name just two: Sochi Olympics in 2014 and activities within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, including the summit in Vladivostok, in 2012. It would seem that they are merely particular tasks, in one case sports-related, in the other a foreign policy and foreign economic endeavor, associated with Russia's participation in the international forum. However, they actually serve as catalysts for growth and regional development with the active use of international cooperation.

Question: Within what limits can the Ministry and its foreign agencies contribute to the development of Russian business?

Andrey Denisov: Our Ministry, by definition, cannot interfere in commercial activities, in the negotiation of deals. This is taboo for us. State support, however, is our direct official duty, since it is impossible to separate the interests of the state from the interests of individual economic operators. After all, the state's interests in the economic field are the sum of the interests of these very economic operators in a specific market. It’s another thing that we can’t allow a situation of an artificial conflict of interest because of the promotion of one company over another. So, of course, it would help us work faster and more efficiently if we knew in advance about the plans of companies with respect to country markets, where they specifically need a boost in terms of direct support of the project they are implementing. Surely there is common international practice for tendering in which the foreign diplomatic missions in the framework of opportunities available to them get in touch with organs of state power and lobby for the interests of their companies.

In light of the objectives of innovation development of the country new elements are appearing in this practice. Today we do not need just numbers of trade and investment attracted; we also need the quality of growth. We look in a pickier and more exacting manner at those industries where the money is going. And by our methods we try to somehow stimulate investment flow to areas that determine scientific and technological progress. First of all, information technology, engineering, new materials production, chemistry... Of course, no one forgets about the traditional areas that have become Russia’s trademark – primarily the fuel and energy sector. But even there, by methods of differentiated stimulation you must strive to improve, say, the degree of processing of extracted raw materials, to bring this processing to a new technological level. So the qualitative aspect of the job is becoming ever more important, not just numbers.