Russia ready to join forces against extremism, UN official says

MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. Russia is ready to join forces in the fight against extremism and other new challenges, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Angel Moratinos told TASS in an interview.

The senior UN official noted that relations between the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and Russia have a long history. "I remember when I was foreign minister [of Spain] at the time, we launched the initiative of the Alliance of Civilizations. My dear colleague and friend, Sergey Lavrov, foreign minister of Russia, and myself, we signed a common letter expressing our wish that we should join forces, respond collectively in order to eliminate violent extremism that was, of course, causing terror acts around the world," he pointed out. "The best way to eliminate this threat, these terror attacks was to really get to the root causes, to understand why people become violent extremists, and so from that point of view and from the inception of the Alliance, Russia was always present, working together and supporting us diplomatically, politically, financially and so that we have been working together in a very positive manner," Moratinos stressed.

According to the UN deputy chief, the Alliance has had its ups and downs. "I became a High Representative of the United National Alliance [in 2019] and I remember I could only make my first visit to Moscow, it was 2021. We were gradually getting out from COVID. And we had a very good meeting with Foreign Minister Lavrov and his team. And since then, Russia has been very active. Russia participates in the different global forums of the Alliance, [in] Fez, Cascais, Riyadh and in the earlier years," he noted.

Moratinos pointed out that, over the past two to three years, Russian diplomats have shown a noticeable increase in interest and greater involvement in the Alliance’s activities. "That is the reason that they invited me to participate in the fantastic Kazan Forum (the Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum international economic forum - TASS)," the senior UN official added.