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Russian foreign minister leaves for Canada, US
 Russia's top diplomat left for Canada and the United States Sunday on a high-level diplomatic trip that will likely include talks on Iran's nuclear programs, Israeli-Palestinian relations and Russia's G8 presidency. In meetings with Canadian officials, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be discussing, among other things, Canadian funding for scrapping mothballed Russian nuclear submarines, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. In Washington, Lavrov is expected to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and others. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin was quoted by ITAR-Tass as saying that the situation in the Middle East, the war on terrorism and nuclear non-proliferation would top the agenda. Russia is also seeking to wrap up agreement with Washington on joining the World Trade Organization. Russia has recently taken on a major role in trying to resolve several festering Middle Eastern conflicts. This past week, a delegation from Iran travelled to Moscow for talks on establishing a joint uranium enrichment venture to ease concerns over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Russia has offered to host the enrichment of uranium for Iran, a proposal supported by the United States as a way to ease concerns that Iran could divert the material for weapons. Top leaders from the Palestinian military group Hamas -- which won parliamentary elections in January -- also travelled to Moscow this week at President Vladimir Putin's invitation. Before the trip, an influential U.S. foreign policy organization warned that Russia's emergence as an increasingly authoritarian state could impair U.S.-Russian ability to co-operate on key international security issues. In a report released Sunday, the Council on Foreign Relations said Russia's drift away from democratic norms under Putin "will make it harder for the two sides to find common ground and harder to co-operate even when they do." Russia took over the rotating presidency of the Group of Eight major industrialized countries this year and will host G8 leaders at a summit in St. Petersburg in July. Posted by: lotp 2006-03-06 |
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