The main objective of Russia's foreign policy in 2015 was to secure the country's leading role in the fight against terrorism; the actions of the Russian aviation group in Syria helped clear the situation in this regard, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"The key objective of Russian diplomatic efforts was to secure the leading role of our country in mobilizing the international repulsion of terrorist aggression and form a broad antiterrorist front," Lavrov said in an interview with Interfax.

"Decisive actions of the Russian Aerospace Forces at the request of the Syrian government helped withstand the onslaught of the militants," he added.

"The picture of events became considerably clearer as a result and now we can see who actually fights extremists and who acts as their abettor, trying to use them for their own selfish purposes, unleashing, like Turkey, a stab in the back of those who confront the terrorist threat," Lavrov said.

"Russia acted actively and with good dynamics, trying to rise to responsibility for the course of events in the world, as one of the largest countries, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council," he said.

"We have been steadily proceeding from the notion that terrorism cannot be defeated by military means only; this fight must be accompanied by a political solution to the conflict situations, with facilitating economic rehabilitation of the affected countries, with an opposition to extremist ideology."

"Our approaches contributed to the launch of the so-called 'Vienna process' on the facilitation of the political settlement in Syria with participation of all countries capable of making a tangible contribution to these efforts," Lavrov added.

"We believe that finding solutions to the most difficult problems of modern times is only possible on the basis of international law, the principles of equality, mutual respect and consideration of mutual interests, through paying tribute to the cultural and civilizational diversity in the modern world and the right of nations to independently choose their destiny," Lavrov said.

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