President Putin: Kofi Annan's visit to Moscow - another step towards UN - Russia interaction

Vladimir Putin considers Kofi Annan's visit to Moscow as another step towards the strengthening of the UN - Russia interaction. This was disclosed by the Russian President on Wednesday in his opening speech of the meeting with the UN Secretary General.

Moscow treats the UN as the key organisation in the cause of the strengthening of international law and order, the Russian President stressed. Vladimir Putin especially pointed out this fact due to the present local conflicts.

According to him, today the most topical conflicts, which arise concerns are: the Middle East conflict and the Indian-Pakistani conflict. These conflicts were in the centre of discussions in the course of the Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit in Alma-Ata the day before. Putin recalled, that the UN Secretary General representatives participated in the summit.

Kofi Annan in his turn thanked Vladimir Putin "for the strong Russian support of the UN and for the warm character of the relations between the UN and Russia".

Moreover, Annan expressed his gratitude to the Russian President "for his personal participation in solution of the present conflicts, including the conflict in the Middle East and the Indian-Pakistani conflict".