57th session of UN General Assembly opens in New York

On Tuesday, the UN General Assembly gathers for its 57th session in New York. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov heads the Russian delegation at the session which is expected to consider 168 issues and adopt a few hundreds resolutions. The fight against international terrorism, though, will be in the focus of the session.

According to Moscow, the UN has a great potential in the fight against terrorism and could well contribute to the establishment of a global system of counteracting the threat of terrorism. The legal base for the fight against terrorism should be strengthened for this end. Russia, in particular, will be insisting on the soonest completion of work and adoption of such important documents as UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism and the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism.

The Middle East settlement will be yet another issue on the agenda of the 57th session of the UN General Assembly and the Russian delegation intends to make its contribution so that the decisions the UN General Assembly makes help overcome the tension around the Palestinian territories.

Apart from official events, the agenda of plenary sessions of the General Assembly includes a number of multilateral and bilateral meetings. Among them are Kofi Annan's meeting with the foreign ministers of 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council; talks between the G-8 foreign ministers and negotiations between the Russian Foreign Minister and the EU Foreign Minister. Both international issues and topical problems of Russia's bilateral relations with a number of states will be discussed at the meetings. Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov told RIA Novosti that this was a very convenient pretext for meeting representatives of a large number of states simultaneously so that to add up to the dynamics of Russia's multi-vector foreign policy course.

On the whole, Russia's stance at the coming session of the UN General Assembly is to contribute to the consolidation of the UN leading role in preventing and settling crises in the world.