RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER TO ATTEND OSCE MINISTERIAL MEETING IN ALMATY

ITAR-TASS
July 15 2010
Russia

MOSCOW, July 16 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
on Friday leaves for Kazakhstan’s Almaty to attend an informal meeting
of OSCE foreign ministers.

The meeting of foreign ministers from 56 OSCE member countries will
be held on July 16 through 17.

The ministers will discuss topical problems inside and outside the
OSCE area of responsibility, including the situation in Kyrgyzstan and
Afghanistan. They will consider intermediate results of the dialogue
within the so-called Corfu process launched last year and geared
towards a common position in respect of future European security.

Moscow hopes that the meeting will also address Russia’s initiative
on a European Security Treaty.

Special attention will be focused on issues to be included in the
agenda of an OSCE summit in Astana. Kazakh President Nursultan
Nazarbayev proposed to hold such a meeting in his country at the
end of 2009. The majority of OSCE member states, including Russia,
have supported the idea, since they have much to discuss bearing in
mind that their last summit meeting was held in 1999.

A number of bilateral and multilateral talks are planned within
the framework of the ministerial meeting. Thus, it is expected that
foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia will hold talks involving
their counterparts from the Minsk Group co-chairs (Russia, France,
and the United States), and the current OCSE chairman to discuss
Karabakh settlement problems.

From: A. Papazian