RUSSIA FM TO ARRIVE IN BAKU

ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
May 20, 2007 Sunday 07:24 PM EST

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will arrive on an official visit
in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, on Monday. The forthcoming meetings
between the Russian minister and the Azerbaijani leadership will
focus on the problems of the CIS, the Caspian Sea and Nagorno Karabakh.

Sergei Lavrov "will be received by Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev, is expected to meet with Prime Minister Artur Rasizade and
his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov," spokesman for the
Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Kamynin said. The sides will discuss
"the implementation of the agreements reached on the top level bringing
interstate relations to a qualitatively new level by means of improving
cooperation in all spheres."

The foreign ministers of the two countries will exchange views "on the
possibility of broader cooperation within the CIS, higher coordination
of actions in international organisations." The interlocutors "will
attune steps for cooperation in the UN, the OSCE and the Council of
Europe," Kamynin added.

The negotiations will also focus on the Nagorno Karabakh settlement
situation. "Russia aims at assisting the parties to the conflict to
find a compromise decision," the diplomat pointed out. "Azerbaijan
and Armenia bear the major burden of responsibility for a final
choice of a settlement formula," Kamynin remarked. Russia "would be
ready to support a problem solution, which will suit all parties,
and if a compromise agreement is reached, will act as a guarantor
of settlement."

The Baku negotiations will highlight the issues of defining a legal
status of the Caspian Sea, ensuring security in the region and the
prospects of holding the second summit of Caspian littoral states.

The forthcoming negotiations will also focus on the prospects of
bilateral cooperation. "The economic aspect of cooperation is becoming
more and more important," Kamynin indicated. "A high economic growth
rate in Russia and Azerbaijan make these countries more attractive
in terms of developing mutually beneficial cooperation," the Russian
Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said.

"Prospects open up for broader cooperation in the fuel and energy
complex, science-intensive technologies, innovative activities,
and expanding direct economic ties between regions of Russia and
Azerbaijan," he noted.

"Cooperation in the humanitarian sphere makes a significant part of
bilateral relations," Mikhail Kamynin underlined. "We believe that a
valuable experience, which had been accumulated during the exchange of
the national years in the countries, should be used in the fulfillment
of the Russian-Azerbaijani programme of cooperation in the humanitarian
sphere for 2007-2009," the Russian ministry’s spokesman said.