Foreign Minister of Russia Igor Ivanov to arrive in France on working visit

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will arrive in France on a working visit on Wednesday.

As RIA Novosti was told in the information and press department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, in the course of the forthcoming visit which will last from November 13th to 15th the head of Russian diplomacy "will participate in the first meeting of the Russian-French Council of Cooperation on Security. Ivanov's meetings with the French leadership are planned, too.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko stated in an interview with RIA Novosti that at the first meeting of the Russian-French Council on Security slated to be held in Paris on November 15th "particular attention will be paid to cooperation in combating international terrorism." In the course of the meeting "it is envisaged to discuss other key problems of international and regional security, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and issues related to interaction within the framework of Russia-EU and Russia-NATO relations", the diplomat emphasized.

It's an open secret that the Council was established on the basis of the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of France Jacques Chirac, taken in January 2002. The Joint Statement by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia and France on setting up the Council, which determined the procedure for its work, was signed in Moscow on July 8th, 2002.

The meetings of the Council with the participation of the Foreign and Defence Ministers of the two countries will be held annually, alternately in Moscow and Paris.