MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. Russia and Indonesia have agreed to step up various forms of cooperation in the war on terror, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday after negotiations with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi.

"We agreed to step up our cooperation in the war on terror both through bilateral channels and through the UN mechanisms and cooperation in the multilateral format in the Pacific Rim," the minister said.

Lavrov said that he discussed thorny issues of both Asia and the Middle East at the negotiations with the Indonesian foreign minister. "Regarding specific regional problems, we discussed what is happening on the Korean Peninsula and around it and what is happening in the Middle East and northern Africa," he said. "We share the opinion that with the difficult problems in such countries as Libya, Syria and Yemen we should not forget the problem of the Israeli-Palestinian settlement based on the existing UN decisions. As Indonesia, we are in favor of solving all issues of the final status of the Israeli-Palestinian settlement through direct dialogue and within the Arab Peace Initiative that was supported by the UN Security Council."

The Arab Peace Initiative is an official initiative of the Arab countries adopted by the Arab League in Beirut on March 28, 2002. It is aimed at achieving a comprehensive peace with Israel and the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict with the main condition being Israel’s withdrawal from the territories occupied by it in 1967 (including the Golan Heights) and the recognition of the State of Palestine on the West Bank in the Gaza Strip with the capital in East Jerusalem. In 2007, the Arab League reconfirmed its initiative at a summit in Riyadh.