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Lavrov to attend CSTO foreign ministerial meeting

The ministers are expected to pay considerable attention to the issue of counteraction to international terrorism and extremism in the light of tendencies in the Middle East and Afghanistan

© Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

YEREVAN, July 4. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will on Monday attend a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a regional security body, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The sides will consider issues relating to the assessment of urgent problems of the international and regional security, interaction of CSTO states on the international arena and the situation in the world.

The ministers are expected to pay considerable attention to the issue of counteraction to international terrorism and extremism in the light of tendencies in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Besides, the Russian side has submitted a proposal to adopt a statement on the situation in Syria.

The CSTO is a regional security group comprising six countries - Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia.

The foreign ministers will also discuss a draft collective security strategy of the CSTO up to 2025, actualized collective instructions to CSTO envoys to international organizations, a plan of consultations on foreign policy, security and defense for the second half of 2016 - the first half of 2017 and other documents.

"We hope the Yerevan meeting of ministers will make an important contribution to implementation of agreements of the CSTO presidents on further development of allied interaction in the organization," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

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