Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Ivanov reiterated Russia’s position on missile defense, stressing Moscow does not seek an advantage, merely legal guarantees regarding its current and future security.

In an opening address to participants read by Sergei Ivanov, President Putin expressed his confidence that, despite differences over issues such as missile defense, the international community is in a good position to build and strengthen collective defense and security strategies.

“The necessary prerequisites are in place: the lack of any fundamental ideological differences, mutually intertwined economies, and developing cultural, scientific and business contacts between people,” Putin’s message said.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the lack of trust between Russia and the West, which he described as a “cold war relic,” is a key problem in European security, and stressed that “Russia and NATO have agreed not to view each other as enemies.”

However, NATO’s continuing eastward expansion is undermining those areas of progress that Russia and the West have achieved, Shoigu said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that “transatlantic security should not oppose pan-European unity.”

“If we want to overcome mutual suspicion regarding each other’s intentions, then we need to jointly analyze the risks and develop genuinely collective, common, approaches to neutralize them,” Lavrov said.