🎙 Remarks and response to a question by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Plenary Session of the International Collective Security Forum (Moscow, November 10, 2026) Key points: • Russian initiatives to establish a single treaty-based legal framework for security across Europe were rejected. I remember very clearly reminding our Western colleagues of the principle of indivisible security. It requires that no country or organisation in the Euro-Atlantic area strengthen its own security at the expense of others or lay claim to dominance. • As you know, our most recent attempt came in December 2021, when we tried to prevent the inevitable. I want to stress that point, as President Vladimir Putin has explained on more than one occasion. We knew for certain that serious preparations were under way, with Western support, for a major military crackdown on Donbass (the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics). We could not allow that to happen. • We have no illusions about the administration of US President Donald Trump. We recognise the fundamental differences between us over the future course of international politics. ☝️ Even so, it is always better to talk. That was true even during the Cold War, when our military maintained contact with their American counterparts. It remains true of our relations with the US today. • We have our own position paper [on a new security architecture in Eurasia]. We also have what #CSTO Secretary General Taalatbek Masadykov has just outlined. The CSTO works closely with other subregional organisations on the continent, including the #CIS and the #SCO, and has signed memoranda of cooperation with them. • Africa has around a dozen subregional organisations. Latin America, too, certainly has around ten such organisations. Both regions also have a continent-wide umbrella organisation that brings all their countries together. Eurasia, the world’s largest continent, rich in natural resources and densely populated, has no such umbrella organisation. Yet closer links are essential if we are to achieve a sensible division of labour and make the most of the advantages that God and history have bestowed on the peoples of Eurasia. We need those links to avoid duplication and optimise logistics projects and transport routes. • Our aim is to come together and take stock of what we already have – the subregional organisations already in place and the links between them. We have no plans to create a new organisation. Consider the links between the EAEU and ASEAN, the SCO and ASEAN, the EAEU and the SCO, and those linking the CIS, the SCO and the CSTO. To some extent, what we call the “integration of integrations” is already under way. Read in full