Russia Welcomes Open, Honest Collaboration With East, West Partners

Russia stands for open, honest collaborative relationships based on the principle of equality with all its partners and doesn't see any reason to go back to the Cold War, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's European Cooperation Department Andrei Kelin said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia believes that the bloc rivalry should become the relic of the Cold War, and the international security cannot be ensured at the expense of some countries, Kelin said.

"We are ready for open and honest cooperation in all spheres with our Eastern and Western partners… We advocate equal relationships with all the partners, be they from the East or from the West," Kelin said at the second European Forum of Young Diplomats.

According to Kelin, there is no reason for Russia and the West to go back to the Cold War with the West.

"Today many people talk about new Cold War, 'hot war': there are no grounds for such talks. We share same values, and anyone who says that they are different is wrong. It's just that some have more liberal [values] and some more conservative," Kelin said in his speech at the second European Forum of Young Diplomats.

He added that Russia and the United States would not go back to the confrontation and that they should reiterate their commitment to Helsinki Accords, signed by 35 countries in August 1975, in an attempt to improve relations between the then-communist bloc, comprising the Soviet Union, and the countries of the Warsaw Pact, including the United States.