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Russia hopes for constructive cooperation with Niger in UN Security Council, says Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is holding at a meeting with his visiting Nigerien counterpart Kalla Ankourao in Moscow

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/. Russia hopes for maintaining close contacts with Niger, which over the next two years will be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with his visiting Nigerien counterpart Kalla Ankourao in Moscow on Thursday.

The agenda of Thursday’s negotiations includes bilateral relations, which, Lavrov said, "rely on the traditions of friendship, cooperation and mutual understanding."

"We are determined to systematically strengthen them. Russia is interested in enhancing cooperation in all fields, such as the political, trading, economic and humanitarian dialogue," Lavrov said.

"Our meeting today is of special importance, because Niger over the next two years will be a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council," Lavrov said. "We hope for close interaction in this most important organization of the international community."

For his part Ankourao described talks with Lavrov as a rehearsal ahead of the first-ever Russia-Africa summit due in Sochi at the end of October. He thanked the Russian government for this initiative, which, he said, reaffirmed Moscow’s intention to deepen and expand bilateral cooperation between the countries of that region.