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RF, Morocco FMs to discuss Syria, MidEast and N Africa situation

The Moroccan Minister is currently in Russia on a working visit
Photo UTAR-TASS
Photo UTAR-TASS

MOSCOW, June 28 (Itar-Tass) - The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Morocco, Sergei Lavrov and Saad Addin Al-Osmani will hold talks on Friday to discuss topical problems of bilateral relations, as well as the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, in Syra, in particular. The Moroccan Minister is currently in Russia on a working visit.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said, "This is already a third arrival of the Moroccan Foreign Minister in Russia over the past 18 months, which is indicative of an intensive and substantive political dialoge between our two countries".

"During the forthcoming talks, the sides will devote special attention to themes regarding bilateral relations," the diplomat said. "For many years, Morocco has been among Russia's three leading trading partners in Africa. We take note of the progressive growth of goods turnover, which ran at $1.8 billion in 2012, which was almost twice as high as the 2010 indicator. We single out sea fisheries as an important and promising area of mutually beneficial economic partnership".

"We attach much importance to an intensification of the work of the mixed intergovernmental commission for economic, scientific and technical cooperation, the commission which is co-chaired on the Morocan side by Saad Addin Al-Osmani," Lukashevich pointed out. "A regualar session of the Commission is due to be held in Morocco in the current year".

"We are interested in a substantive discussion with the Moroccan Minister of key matters that are on the international and regional agendas, with due regard for Morocco's status of a Non-Permanent Member of the UN Security Council in the current year," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said. "We expect a useful exhange of views on the situation in the region of the Middle East and North Africa, specifically that in Syra, as well as in Sahara-Sahel zone, the Middle East peace process, Western Sahara, and other themes that are of mutual interest," Lukashevich emphasized.