NEW YORK, September 25 (RIA Novosti) - Joining the World Trade Organization is a strategic goal for Russia, the foreign minister said on Friday.
"We still seek to join the WTO on honest, open and equal conditions, as well as our partners from the customs union [Kazakhstan and Belarus]," Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting of the Russian-U.S. business council.
Russia is the world's only major economy outside the WTO. President Dmitry Medvedev last week blamed the United States for blocking its accession to the trade body.
Ex-Soviet allies Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan agreed in early June to form a customs bloc and seek joint accession to the WTO. Unified customs regulations are due to come into effect at the start of 2010.
"It was a complicated but necessary decision, which the three countries made following more than 10 years of talks between each other and the WTO secretariat," Lavrov said, adding that Russian laws relating to WTO accession will remain in force.
