Putin meets with Security Council members to discuss G8
summit
Itar-Tass Sat, 26 Feb 2005 7:14 AM PST
26.02.2005, 14.45
Prime
Minister Mikhail Fradkov, Presidential Administration Chief
Dmitry Medvedev, Secretary of the Security
Council Igor Ivanov, Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, Interior
Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, Director of the Federal Security Service
(FSB) Nikolai Patrushev and
Director of the Foreign Intelligence
Service Sergei Lebedev attended the meeting.
Putin and the officials discussed various aspects of Russia’s domestic
and foreign policy, presidential
press secretary Aleksei Gromov said.
Accroding to Gromov, the participants in the meeting
also considered
preparation for a meeting of the Group of Eight leaders in Russia in
2006. The
Scottish city of Gleneagles (Great Britain) will host the G8
summit in 2005.
Putin
arrived in St. Petersburg late on Friday from Bratislava, where
he had held a four-hour summit with
U.S. President George W. Bush.
The presidents met both in a tete-a-tete format and with
participation
of the delegations. After the summit, the presidents gave a joint news
conference. Then Putin paid an official visit in Slovakia and held
talks with the republic’s
leadership, including Slovak President Ivan
Gasparovic
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=1782658&PageNum=0
2005-02-27 19:03 * RUSSIA * EU * SUMMIT *
RUSSIA-EU SUMMIT
PREPARATIONS TO COME UNDER DISCUSSION AT LUXEMBOURG
TALKS
MOSCOW,
February 27 (RIA Novosti) - Sergei Lavrov, Russia's Minister
of Foreign Affairs, and the European
Union's leading three come
together at the negotiation table in Luxembourg tomorrow, February 28.
The agenda will revolve round Russia-EU interaction and preparations
for Russia-EU summitry
Moscow will host, May 10. The information
reached RIA Novosti from Alexander Yakovenko, Russia's
Foreign Ministry
official spokesman.
The Luxembourg conference, at a
foreign-ministerial level, will
involve Russia, Luxembourg as current EU chair country, and the UK
as
the upcoming. The EU Council Secretary General and a European
Commission member will also
attend.
The negotiators will also tackle efforts to form four united
environments-economic; freedom, security and justice; transnational
security; and, last but not
least, research, education and culture.
The Luxembourg conferees will pay due attention to
issues
long-established in the foreground of international
affairs-developments in the Middle
East, the Iraqi situation, NCB
nonproliferation, OSCE activities, and regional conflict settlement,
said Mr. Yakovenko.
The Parties ought to coordinate reciprocal measures gradually to
shift
to visa-free travel of Russian and EU countries' nationals. The
diplomat highlighted
these efforts among the crucial in blueprinting
the united environment of freedom, security and
justice.
Moscow regards an upcoming readmission agreement precisely in that
context. An initial stage will be ushered in with a Russia-EU
agreement, now being drafted, on
streamlining visa arrangements. The
instrument will reach farther than analogous agreements Russia has
made
for today with Germany, France and Italy.
Mr. Yakovenko also mentioned
Russia-EU expert consultations, due in
Brussels, March 1. The agenda will include a wide range of human
rights
issues, and the situation of ethnic minorities in Russia and European
Union countries.
Some of the items under discussion will also appear on
the agenda of an upcoming session of the United
Nations' human rights
committee.
Vladimir Parshikov, who heads the Foreign
Ministry department for
humanitarian cooperation and human rights, will lead the Russian
delegation in Brussels.
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=5444324&startrow=1&date=2005-02-27&do_alert=0
EUobserver.com - Belgium
Democracy in focus at EU-Russia meeting
28.02.2005 - 10:08 CET | By Marit Ruuda
Concerns over democracy, human rights and security issueswill be the
centre of
attention when EU representatives meet Russian foreign
minister Sergei Lavrov in Luxembourg today (28
February).
A joint high-level ad hoc team for tackling problems in Kaliningrad is
also likely to be set up during the meeting today.
Representing the Commission,
external relations commissioner Benita
Ferrero-Waldner, said, "In a strong partnership, both sides
speak
openly".
"I look forward to continuing dialogue with Russia on a wide range
of
issues including democracy and human rights", she added.
Following a decision at
the last EU-Russia summit in 2004, a first
round of EU-Russia consultations on human rights, the rights
of
minorities and fundamental freedoms, will take place in Luxembourg on
Tuesday (1 March).
The human rights situation in Chechnya, as well as the minority issues
in the Baltic
countries, are also topics expected to be raised during
the consultations.
The EU
and Russia are currently discussing a package of four "Road
Maps" to create "common spaces" in the
areas of economic co-operation;
freedom, security and justice; external security; and research,
education and culture. They hope to sign an overall partnership accord
on 10 May in Moscow.
Mrs Ferrero-Waldner will be joined by Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean
Asselborn and
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief.
http://www.euobserver.com/?sid=9&aid=18517
2005-02-28 09:25 * RUSSIA * EU * SECURITY
* NEGOTIATIONS *
SECURITY ROAD MAP CAN BE ALIGNED BY RUSSIA-EU SUMMIT
MOSCOW, February 28 (RIA Novosti) -- The Russian Foreign Ministry
believes there is a real
possibility of aligning the Russia-EU security
Road Map by the time the two sides will come together at
the next
summit, Official Spokesman for the Ministry Alexander Yakovenko told
RIA Novosti.
"The results of the latest consultations held in Brussels on February
18 suggest that
we could fully align the Road Map for the [security
common] space by the forthcoming summit, provided
constructive approach
on the EU side," he said.
According to Mr. Yakovenko, the
common security space would be shaped
"within the framework of available mechanisms, in full compliance
with
international law and on the basis of the UN Charter."
According to the
spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow
won't agree to "EU efforts to focus the Road Map
exclusively on the
post-Soviet territory."
"We do not say we are the only player in
this field; we are ready to
further cooperate with the EU, provided that Russia's long-term
material interests in these regions are taken into account. We would
consider it important to
maintain support for post-Soviet stronger
regional cooperation and integration processes, to which
Russia is a
party, which could send a message that Russia and the EU are not rivals
in this
territory, but seek to strengthen stability and security
together," Mr. Yakovenko underscored.
According to him, Russia and the EU "have spheres of mutual interests
where we could
cooperate: regional conflict management, WMD/missile
nonproliferation, and war on international
terrorism."
At the same time, the Foreign Ministry official appreciated the work
being done to shape the fourth, humanitarian/educational/cultural
EU-Russia common space.
"It is here that we see the greatest progress. The relevant Road Map
is all but
aligned - Russian negotiators will soon submit their
proposals on the final version of the document,"
Mr. Yakovenko said.
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=5444503&startrow=1&date=2005-02-28&do_alert=0