Foreign Ministers of Russia and the Netherlands to discuss priorities of OSCE policy in 2003

Priorities of the OSCE's policy in 2003 will be discussed at Moscow negotiations between Foreign Ministers Igor Ivanov of Russia and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the Netherlands this week, Alexander Yakovenko, the official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in a RIA Novosti interview.

The ministers are expected to exchange opinions on the course of arrangements for the next session of the Council of the OSCE Foreign Ministers to be held in Porto on December 6-7th.

According to Yakovenko, the Council of Foreign Ministers should "outline the tasks for 2003 and a longer period enriching the OSCE agenda with issues related to the formation of a common European architecture" and "extend the dialogue between the OSCE member states on cardinal issues of security in the Euro-Atlantic region." "This year the active Russo-Dutch dialogue exposed a substantial coincidence of opinions on modifying OSCE activities, adjusting its mechanisms to modern challenges of global and regional stability, a balanced use of the potential of the organisation in the military-political, economic and humanitarian dimensions," the diplomat said.

According to Moscow, the advancing political dialogue between Russia and the Netherlands has all the reasons to become "the constant" of European policy and a major aspect of European security and stability.