Lavrov to attend OSCE Council of FMs, Russia-NATO Council meetings.

MOSCOW, November 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov will go on a European tour on Monday to attend a session of the
OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers in Athens on December 1-2 and a
ministerial meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Brussels on December 4.

The Russian side intends to focus on the security problems in the
Euro-Atlantic region at a meeting of the OSCE Council of Foreign Ministers.
"Russia is concerned over the current situation regarding 'tough'
security in the Euro-Atlantic region. It is reflected in a deep crisis of
the CFE Adapted Treaty, the stagnation in confidence-building measures,
the attempts for a forcible solution of regional conflicts, particularly
those undertaken by Georgia in August 2008, as well as persistent threats
of international terrorism, drug trafficking and other kinds of
transborder organized crime," a diplomatic source in the Russian Foreign
Ministry said. "We use the OSCE platform for a broad political dialogue
with the United States, the EU states, all 55 OSCE partners," the
diplomatic source said.
Russia co-authored with U.S. a draft resolution of the OSCE Council of
Foreign Ministers on the OSCE role in the struggle with transborder
threats to security and stability. "We propose to agree on the common
principles of prevention and settlement of the conflicts. The adoption of
these principles would allow preventing the repetition of the situations
similar to Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia in August 2008," the
Russian diplomatic source said.
The problem of the OSCE reform to make the work of this organization
more effective remains an important issue. "Russia calls for a continuous
OSCE reform to turn it in a full-fledged interstate organization operating
under the clear-cut jointly coordinated regulations. Jointly with several
partners we submitted for an Athens meeting of the OSCE Council of Foreign
Ministers a draft resolution that represents some kind of 'road map' of
the OSCE reform under the 2005 Group of Sages report on making the OSCE
activities more effective," the Foreign Ministry's source said. "Our
initiatives for drafting the OSCE Charter, the OSCE basic principles of
election monitoring and others remain on the agenda of the negotiations.
We hope for their support from our partners," the Russian diplomatic
source said.
Sergei Lavrov will have several bilateral meetings with his
counterparts from the OSCE states at an upcoming session of the OSCE
Council of Foreign Ministers.
The Russia-NATO Council ministerial meeting will be the first
full-fledged meeting after the tragic August 2008 events in South Ossetia.
Russia and NATO are expected to unblock military cooperation, which was
halted over the Caucasus war. Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance began
improving relations after an informal meeting of the Russia-NATO Council
in late June 2009 on the Greek island Corfu. Sergei Lavrov participated in
this informal meeting of the Council. At this informal meeting Russia and
NATO reached an agreement to resume political dialogue and practical
mutually beneficial cooperation "at any winds".
"We succeeded to pass a difficult way from confrontation and the full
absence of contacts to the advanced dialogue and cooperation for the sake
of security of our countries, predictability and stability in Europe,
there were rises and throwbacks, achievements and difficulties," the
Russian Foreign Ministry's source said.
"Russia is ready to develop genuinely full-fledged cooperation with
NATO in response to real, rather than false challenges to security. We
will hope that the common sense will take the upper hand, and all NATO
states will understand that the Alliance should be interested in
constructive relations with Russia," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

.OPCW Conference to focus on chemical weapons destruction progress.

THE HAGUE, November 30 (Itar-Tass) -- The 14th session of the
Conference of the member-countries of the Organization for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will open here on Monday to discuss the
progress in the destruction of chemical weapons. The OPCW headquarters is
situated in The Hague. This international organization brings together 188
countries, including Russia.
The participants of the OPCW Conference session, which will last until
December 4, will analyze how the countries possessing the chemical weapons
are fulfilling the plans and are meeting the schedule for the destruction
of chemical weapons. The chief of the department for conventional
commitments implementation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Viktor
Kholstov, heads the Russian delegation at the session.
The OPCW Conference is the main plenary organ of the organization. The
Conference brings together all OPCW states. The Conference meets for
regular sessions annually and for special sessions if necessary. The
Conference can give recommendations and take decisions on any issues or
problems of the OPCW activities.
The OPCW states account for more than 98% of the world population. The
OPCW is the most rapidly growing international disarmament organization in
the world history. The OPCW basic document is the Convention on the
Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of
Chemical Weapons and their Destruction (Chemical Weapons Convention) is
the first multilateral agreement, which does not only prohibit the entire
type of mass destruction weapons, but also envisages inspections at
military and civilian chemical plants. The United Nations Organization
urged all countries to join the Chemical Weapons Convention and release
the world from the threat, which chemical weapons pose to international
security.
The Chemical Weapons Convention was signed in Paris on January 13-15,
1995, by 130 countries and entered into force on April 29, 1997. Currently
188 countries are the Convention's members. Another two countries - Israel
and Myanmar - signed the Convention, thus demonstrating the political
support to the goals and principles of the Convention, and committed not
obstruct the attainment of its goals. Only five countries (Angola, Egypt,
North Korea, Syria and Somalia) did not take any steps towards the
Convention.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons renders
assistance to all countries that did not join the Convention to prepare
for joining it and for the effective fulfillment of the global prohibition
of chemical weapons.
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