LAVROV: HUMANITARIAN COOPERATION WITH CIS IS RUSSIA’S PRIORITY

Regnum, Russia
Sept 30 2006

"Russia regards developing humanitarian cooperation within the CIS
space as its priority," Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said in
his welcome message to participants of scholarly and expert conference
"Mass media and new state relations in the Caucasus region."

"Common humanitarian space is called to preserve and to consolidate
diverse human ties among our peoples, including civil society
institutes, to strengthen adherence to fundamental values, such as
tolerance and mutual respect. Member states of the commonwealth
for centuries have been at the turn of civilizations from time
immemorial. Our common historical and cultural heritage creates
good preconditions for us to make our common unique contribution
to supporting inter-civilization accord in the world. I wish to the
forum’s participants fruitful work aimed at developing cooperation
between Russia and other Caucasian states in the spheres of culture,
education, science, information, and the whole complex of humanitarian
ties;" Sergey Lavrov said in his message read out to the conference
participants by Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Russia
to Armenia Nikolay Pavlov.

Representatives of mass media, analysts from Russia, Georgia, Armenia,
and Azerbaijan participated in the conference, which took place at
the Russian-Armenian (Slavic) state university.