Russia Not Interested In Maintaining Controlled Chaos In N. Africa, Middle East - Lavrov

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2020) Russia wants the middle East and North Africa to become an area of peace and stability and is interested in mutually beneficial cooperation with regional countries but not in maintaining some kind of controlled chaos there, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.

"We do not want, we have no interest in maintaining controlled chaos here. Some other big countries outside the region have such interest. We have no such interest," Lavrov said at the online Primakov Readings.

Russia, he went on, does not want any other country in the region to repeat the fate of Libya. According to the minister, the nation was "simply deprived of statehood," and the international community has now idea how to put it back together.

"We are interested in developing mutually beneficial trade, economic, investment and other ties with these countries ... We want to reap benefits from our relations with the countries of the region, to reap economic benefits," the minister noted.

Russia will not benefit from the ongoing chaos there, the minister stressed. But once the situation stabilizes, Moscow is ready to offer its reliable partnership in economic and political cooperation and the defense sector, according to Lavrov.