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Russian FM to discuss security with European counterparts

Other News Materials 23 June 2010 03:29 (UTC +04:00)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend on Wednesday a ministerial meeting of the Weimar Triangle to discuss European security, RIA Novosti reported.
Russian FM to discuss security with European counterparts

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend on Wednesday a ministerial meeting of the Weimar Triangle to discuss European security, RIA Novosti reported.

The Weimar Triangle is joint consultations between France, Germany and Poland that began in 1991. The Russian foreign minister was invited to join the talks for the first time.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the ministers will discus the implementation of the initiative on the creation of the Russia-EU committee on foreign policy and security, which was put forward by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on June 5.

The ministers will also continue discussions of a new European security pact proposed by the Russian president in 2008.

Medvedev announced his initiative to draw up a new pan-European security pact in May 2008, and the first real draft was presented by the Kremlin in November 2009. It got responses from more than 20 governments and their administrations. The European Union and NATO have also studied the draft.

However, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said such a treaty was unnecessary.

Her position was echoed by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen who has stated repeatedly that the West is no threat to Russia and that extra security guarantees are uncalled for.

Rasmussen said, though, that Russia must be integrated more fully in Euro-Atlantic security.

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