BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

29/01/2008

Lavrov to attend joint meeting of FM Boards in Minsk

MOSCOW, January 29 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov leaves for Minsk on Tuesday to attend a joint meeting of the Boards of the Foreign Ministries of Russia and Belarus.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin pointed out, "The conduct of joint meetings of the Foreign Ministries' Boards on a regular basis since 1999 is indicative of a high level of foreign-policy cooperation between our two countries. Russia-Belarus interaction in the international arena is oriented towards accomplishing common strategic tasks, towards upholding and promoting the interests of Russia and Belarus, and towards ensuring favourable external conditions for their steady socio-economic development".

The Russian diplomat said, "Those present at the meeting of the Foreign Ministries' Boards are to examine and adopt a 2008-2009 Programme for concerted actions in the field of foreign policy of the Union State member-countries. The Programme is to reflect new quality of our two countries' foreign-policy cooperation based on the identity of views practically on all big problems of world politics. The Programme makes it possible to integrate the resources of the Foreign Ministries in upholding and promoting the interests of the two countries in the international arena, and counteracting attempts at bringing about a foreign-political isolation of Belarus".

Those present at the joint meeting are also to discuss in greater details the matters concerning Russia-Belarus interaction in combating new challenges and threats, the possibility of giving greater scope to cooperation within the framework of international organizations on human rights issues. Special attention will be devoted to interaction in the post-Soviet space.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12305055&PageNum=0