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Russian and Kuwaiti foreign ministers to discuss Syria situation

Sergei Lavrov and Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah to meet in Moscow on Friday

MOSCOW, October 11 (Itar-Tass) - The Foreign Ministers of Russia and Kuwait, Sergei Lavrov and Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah, will discuss in Moscow on Friday the situation in Syria and the bilateral cooperation prospects, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

“It is planned to discuss a wide range of issues of Russian- Kuwaiti cooperation, to substantially “compare notes” on the most important aspects of regional issues, including Syria’s problems, the Middle East peace process, the situation in the Gulf region,” the ministry added.

Moscow views the upcoming contact “as a very important and timely, it is aimed at giving a new impetus to the strengthening of the political dialogue between Russia and Kuwait, the development of bilateral cooperation in various fields.” “We highly value friendly Russian-Kuwaiti ties that, without exaggeration, have been time-tested and have rich potential for development, our approaches to the main problems of the region and the world are traditionally close or coincide,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary for the visit. “Both sides have confirmed their interest in building a versatile trade and economic partnership, implementing joint projects in the investment, banking, energy, infrastructure and high-technology sectors. There are good opportunities for cooperation in the fields of science, education and culture.”

At the same time, cooperation with Kuwait is not limited to the bilateral format, it is also developed on region-wide platforms. “The most important of them today is the Russia - the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) strategic dialogue, launched in November 2011,” stated the RF Foreign Ministry. “Its two ministerial meetings have been efficacious; they made it possible to identify the key directions for further cooperation with the GCC countries both in the political and trade-economic spheres. We expect positive results from the third forum of the strategic dialogue.”

Russia also hopes to develop cooperation with Kuwaiti partners in the promotion of the Russian concept of a regional system of collective security and cooperation in the Gulf area, developed in the late 1990s and updated in 2004, that “should help gradually deflate the crisis atmosphere in this sub-region.”

“The current difficult situation in a number of countries of the Middle East and North Africa, caught in the epicenter of the ‘Arab Spring’ events, determines, in Russia’s view, a special need for this kind of effort,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.