ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
January 23, 2005 Sunday 8:22 AM Eastern Time

Visit by FM to Baku to help discuss reforming CIS-spokesman

BAKU, January 23

A visit by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Baku on February 1-2
“will help to discuss several questions on reforming the CIS”, along
with bilateral relations and pressing international problems, said
here on Sunday Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander
Yakovenko.

According to spokesman, Russia “heads this work in the Commonwealth
and now collects proposals from member countries”. Yakovenko noted
that Lavrov “plans to visit in the near future all the CIS states for
such discussion. For instance the diplomat noted, a trip to Georgia
is planned for February. “There are plans on visits to other
countries as well,” Yakovenko noted.

“The situation in ‘flash spots’, including Nagorno-Karabakh, will be
one of topics for talks of the Russian minister in Azerbaijan.
“Russia is a member of the Minsk Group,” Yakovenko noted. “We believe
that it is necessary to reach understandings and to follow
attentively processes in the region.”

He reported that “important events are in store” in the life of the
two countries. “2005 is Year of Azerbaijan in Russia, while 2006 –
Year of Russia in Azerbaijan.” “We are interested in consolidating
bilateral cooperation,” Yakovenko emphasized.

Speaking in Baku on Sunday at the roundtable “Russia and Azerbaijan.
United information space: issues and prospects”, the diplomat
reported that he “held today first consultations on information
coverage of foreign policy”. For instance he discussed cooperation on
such topics as struggle against terrorism, organized crime and drug
trafficking.

The spokesman underlined importance of “promoting objective
information on the contribution of our countries to the Victory in
the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945”.