7th Asia Cooperation Dialogue Ministerial Meeting

PRESS RELEASE

Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, on October 16, in Astana, took part in the 7th annual ministerial meeting of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) intergovernmental regional forum, which incorporates more than 30 Asian and Middle East states.

Discussions focused mainly on streamlining the multifaceted interaction of the ACD member countries and on the forum's activities in the context of the political and economic situation obtaining in the region. In his speech Sergey Lavrov especially accentuated attention to the new tendencies in global development, which is marked by a sharp crisis of the unipolar world architecture and by awareness that there is no alternative to coordinated approaches toward responding to the challenges and threats of our time. The discussion demonstrated the dominant opinion about the necessity to create a reliable collective system of providing equal security for all states in accordance with the generally recognized principles and norms of international law.

A fruitful discourse on different aspects of increasing cooperation among the member countries of the forum took place. It was decided to nail down in the ACD agenda the theme of food security, which has major importance for Asia. A new program was launched – the Dialogue of Cultures, for which Iran and India were approved as coordinators. Steps were provided for the resumption of the work of the Network of Scientific Research Organizations, the "second track" of the ACD. A set of measures, aimed at the organizational strengthening of the forum, was approved.

The ministers unanimously backed up the accession application of the Kyrgyz Republic, which became the 31st participant of the Dialogue, and adopted a decision to grant the status of "Partner for Development" to the Kingdom of Morocco.

The results of the meeting have shown that the ACD is consistently establishing itself as one of the advanced mechanisms of multilateral interaction in the emerging system of integration associations in the AP region.

October 16, 2008