Russia has no plans at present to sever agreements with NATO, EU, WTO or IMF — politician

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Competent Russian ministries oppose the denunciation of agreements and treaties with NATO, the European Union, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), instruments that can still be used for dialogue, Garry Minkh, the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian president in the State Duma, told TASS in an interview. "Specialized ministries are against the denunciation of our partnership [agreements] with NATO, or global financial organizations, including the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank," the politician said. Minkh explained Russian ministries’ position, saying that the aforementioned documents, including the Russia-EU agreement, "have not exhausted their potential" in the context of conducting dialogue with the West. He described them as "an instrument of communication with other nations." Also, he echoed the position repeatedly voiced by the Russian president and the country’s top diplomat that "we are ready for communication, and we have not rejected that." Unlike Western countries, Minkh continued, Russia has always taken responsibility for honoring its obligations under international agreements as he referred to the situation around the Minsk accords. The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between Russia and the European Union was signed in 1994. It established the framework for close economic relations and multi-level cooperation and came into force in 1997. Russia and NATO signed the Founding Act on Mutual Relations in 1997, and in 2002, the Russia-NATO Council was established. It has not met since 2022. The Soviet Union’s first contacts with the IMF and the WB date back to late 1988. In October 1991, the Soviet Union became a special associate member of the IMF, and in 1992, Russia succeeded the USSR as an IMF member. As regards the WTO, Russia had been in talks to join it for 18 years before becoming a full-fledged member in August 2012, and two years later it was subjected to the West’s illegitimate sanctions.