OYO /Republic of the Congo/, July 25. /TASS/. Russia welcomes the initiative of the Republic of the Congo’s president to organize shortly a conference on national reconciliation in Libya and will help to put this initiative into practice, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on Monday following the results of his visit.

"I want to emphasize the role of President of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso as chair of the African Union High-Level Committee on Libya," he said. "The president shared his plans to organize an all-Libyan conference on national reconciliation in the near future, to which he will invite all representatives of the leading political forces of that country without exception. Given that in the context of preparations for this conference, the president means to envisage also invitations to external players, including the Russian Federation, we will actively help in organizing this important forum," the top diplomat went on to say.

The foreign minister emphasized that Russia welcomed "this focus on making this process inclusive, since all attempts that have been made so far by certain European countries and even by colleagues from the UN Secretariat have not envisaged the inclusiveness of the Libyan participants".

Lavrov ended the news conference with voicing an invitation to his Congolese counterpart Jean-Claude Gakosso to visit Russia. "Once again I would like to thank our Congolese friends and remind my colleague that now it is his turn to visit Russia," he said.