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Lavrov to attend Russia-NATO Council ministerial meeting

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend a ministerial session of the Russia-NATO Council (RNC) here on Wednesday

BRUSSELS, December 04, 2:22 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend a ministerial session of the Russia-NATO Council (RNC) here on Wednesday. Those present will consider new projects for bilateral cooperation, including the launch of a project for disposal of munitions in Kaliningrad Region.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, "Within the framework of the RNC session, we, together with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, shall consider the entire spectrum of our relations".

"We intend to open up new areas of our cooperation, including a project for the disposal of the stocks of antiquated munitions in the territory of Kaliningrad Region, discuss furthering work to eliminate chemical weapons in Syria. On the whole, we intend to reaffrim a continuation of our active joint work with Russia," Rasmussen emphasized.

According to European diplomatic sources, many ministers of NATO countries intend to raise at the meeting the theme of Ukraine, which was actively discussed at Tuesday's ministerial session of the North Atlantic Council. The sources say that the theme "is not on the offiicial agenda but that the Ministers may touch upon it on their own initiative".

An RF Foreign Ministry official said earlier that participants in the RNC session would exchange opinions on pressing international problems that are on the international agenda and affect security in the Euro-Atlantic area (the situation in Syria and Afghanistan), and discuss problems of and prospects for relations between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance in responding to common risks and security threats.

The Foreign ministers will consider "practical measures to implement agreements on the creation of a common space of peace, security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region that were reached at the RNC summit in Lisbon on November 20, 2010. The Russian side will draw attention to the need of taking practical steps towards implementing this task," the Ministry official pointed out.

"The meeting will review the activity of the RNC for 2013 and discuss priorities for further practical cooperation in the military sphere, the fight against piracy, counteraction to terrorist and drug-trafficking threats, response to natural and technogenic catastrophes and the creation of necessary conditions for mutually advantageous military-technical cooperation. The diplomats will also discuss preparation of a project for an industrial disposal of munitions, using advanced environmentally friendly technologies," the Ministry official pointed out. Moreover, the ministers will approve a programme for the Russian-NATO Council'swork for 2014.

"The meeting’s important component will be the discussion of further cooperation on Afghanistan following the withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force’s mission in 2014," the Ministry said. "A special focus will be placed on the need to ensure proper international legal base of NATO’s planned presence in Afghanistan," the ministry said. "Russia will reiterate importance of establishing cooperation between the Alliance and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation," the RF Foreign Ministry official said.