RUSSIAN DEPUTY MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS GEORGY MAMEDOV MEETS WITH FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO MOSCOW CLAUDE BLANCHEMAISON

Unofficial translation from Russian

PRESS RELEASE

On March 7 Georgy Mamedov, Deputy Foreign Minister and Russian G8 Political Director, received French Ambassador to Moscow Claude Blanchemaison at his request.

During the talk, the sides paid the main attention to the most pressing international problems, which can become the subject of discussion at the upcoming G8 summit in Evian, in the first place the crisis situation around Iraq, the tense situation around the Korean peninsula, and the intensification of cooperation under the Global Partnership Against Proliferation program.

A mutual high assessment was given to the level of political cooperation between Russia and France on key problems of today, including major areas of strengthening strategic stability in the interest of building an enduring multipolar world. In this connection Mamedov and Blanchemaison highly assessed the unanimous approval just now of the Russian-American Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty by the US Senate and expressed the confidence that the early reciprocal ratification of the Treaty by the Federal Assembly of Russia and its entry into force will constitute an important element of the rectification of the present tense international situation on the basis of international law and cooperation among the great nuclear powers.

March 7, 2003