FORTALEZA, July 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking at the BRICS summit in Brazil noted the positive example of the cooperation on Syria last year and called on international partners to work along similar lines on other issues, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“Discussing burning issues on the international agenda President Vladimir Putin underlined that the most significant results are achieved when all the leading states combine their efforts,” Lavrov told journalists after the meeting of the BRICS leaders.
According to the top diplomat, the Russian president set as an example the joint work on Syria, when last September at the G20 summit in Saint-Petersburg the BRICS, EU and the United States reached a consensus regarding the destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons stockpile.
“In less than a year this major and quite complicated task was completed. Vladimir Putin urged to work along the same lines in respect to other challenges that the international community is facing,” Lavrov added.
On July 7, the joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN reported the removal of the final 7.2 percent of Syria’s declared chemical weapons, with further actions planned for the destruction of the respective production facilities.
After a deadly chemical weapons attack on a Damascus suburb in August 2011, Russia made a proposal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal that was later supported by the United States. Following the deal, Syria agreed to hand over its estimated 1,000-metric-ton arsenal to international control and joined the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention.
