| The King of Spain is waiting for Putin President Vladimir Putin will visit Spain in the first quarter of 2006. The agreement on this was one of the results of yesterday’s one-day visit to Spain by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In the evening, Mr. Lavrov received an audience with King Juan Carlos I of Spain at the Zarzuela Palace.
The minister's plane landed in the morning at the Torrejon airbase, from where Lavrov's motorcade rushed to Madrid to the Foreign Ministry building. Negotiations between Sergei Lavrov and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Moratinos took place there. They coordinated the schedule of bilateral contacts, including at the highest level. Meetings between the leaders of the two states take place annually - this is provided for by the 1994 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation.
Taking into account the Russia-EU summit held in London on October 4, one of the main topics of the negotiations was Spain’s assistance in strengthening Russia’s cooperation with the EU. Lavrov and Moratinos (before his appointment as head of the Spanish Foreign Ministry, he was the EU envoy to the Middle East. - Ed. ) discussed the Middle East settlement and the fight against international terrorism. Madrid supported Moscow's initiative to hold an international conference on the Middle East, and Moscow supported Madrid's idea of forming an anti-terrorist "alliance of civilizations" of Western and Muslim countries.
According to Mr. Lavrov, both countries “have become targets for inhumane terrorist attacks and have experience in fighting this evil.” The dialogue is taking place in the joint Working Group on Combating Terrorism, the first meeting of which was held in April in Moscow.
The progress of Russian-Spanish relations is also confirmed by economic indicators - last year trade turnover increased from 1.9 to 2.1 billion dollars. Next in line, according to Lavrov, is interaction in high-tech industries and in the field of investment (the volume of accumulated mutual direct investments is only only 170 million dollars, or 140 million euros).
A pleasant surprise for our delegation was the high assessment of Russian diplomacy in the person of the former Russian Ambassador to Spain, and now the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the director of its information and press department, Mikhail Kamynin. Yesterday, in the central courtyard of the Spanish Foreign Ministry building, he was solemnly awarded the Order of Civil Merit. Katerina LABETSKAYA, Madrid |
|
