RIA NOVOSTI INTERVIEWS ALEXANDER YAKOVENKO, OFFICIAL SPOKESMAN OF RUSSIA'S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, ON THE EVE OF A VISIT TO MOSCOW BY AVI GIL, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF ISRAEL'S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

NOVOSTI. Avi Gil, Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is arriving in Moscow, June 4. What can you say in that context about the development of Russo-Israeli partnership?

YAKOVENKO. Our practical contacts are acquiring an ever greater scope in many fields, though their potential offers ample opportunities not implemented to this day. That point is especially true of economic partnership.

Upcoming Moscow contacts with Mr. Avi Gil will be part and parcel of a progressing dialogue between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs. The visitor will hold conference with Igor Ivanov, Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, and consultations with his deputies Alexander Saltanov and Georgi Mamedov.

We are glad to point out a spectacular recent extension of the range of topics for discussion. Our debates have become more outspoken. The themes of shared interest include the whole complex of disarmament and strategic stability issues, and regional problems.

Also prominent are opinion exchanges on the many aspects of bilateral partnership. We are to streamline the legal basis of our relations, and treaties underlying them--in particular, in the consular and humanitarian fields. The two Foreign Ministries are able to promote improvement of terms for trade, investment and other economic links. Both Parties are demonstrating resolution for ever closer mutually beneficial ties.

NOVOSTI. What issues will dominate the negotiation agenda?

YAKOVENKO. We have to take into consideration a conflict which is going on round Palestinian lands, so Mideastern problems will be in the foreground. In that sense, we attach tremendous importance to a Russo-Israeli ad hoc committee for the Middle East. It was established within the framework of partnership between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs. Avi Gil chairs the committee on the Israeli side, and Alexander Saltanov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of Mideastern affairs, on the Russian. That is the format in which we intend to have a practical opinion exchange, which will focus on a search of ways to deblock the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and shift the developments into a peaceful political channel.

The situation can be normalised only if political settlement prospects survive. That is the point from which Russia proceeds. That is why we deem it necessary to make parallel progress on three crucial directions: to solve security problems, including an end to terror action; revive political negotiations; and, last but not least, improve the humanitarian and socio-economic situation in Palestine.

A majority of the international community shares that approach. It found reflection in documents adopted to sum up conferences of the four international mediators in Madrid and Washington; the Russian and US Presidents' joint statement of May 24; and the statement by a recent Russia-EU summit in Moscow. We are backing the idea for an international forum to be convened under the aegis of the four international mediators. Such a forum will be able to settle the crisis and resume progress toward a just and reliable Mideastern peace. That peace is to base on United Nations Security Council resolutions Nos. 242, 338 and 1397, the Madrid principles, the Saudi peace initiative, and the available agreements and understandings. That is our firm conviction.

NOVOSTI. What is the Russian opinion of Palestinian Authority reform blueprints?

YAKOVENKO. We greet an intention on the Palestinian Authority top to streamline its agencies. It will be logical, as we see it, to make the reforms within the overall normalisation process so as they work to ease tensions. The announced reforms promise to buttress the democratic bases of the Palestinian community, and make ruling institutions more efficient--in particular, enhance law-enforcement opportunities to combat terrorism. That is from what we proceed in our standpoint on the reforms. On the whole, they are to provide a platform for emergent Palestinian statehood.