Foreign Minister of Russia Igor Ivanov to hold talks with his Canadian counterpart

On Monday Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Igor Ivanov is to hold talks with his Canadian counterpart William Graham who arrived in Moscow the day before on a working visit.

As the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia reported, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs arrived in the Russian capital at the invitation of the government of Russia.

By the information of the Russian foreign-policy agency, the agenda of the forthcoming talks of Foreign Minister of Russia Igor Ivanov and his Canadian counterpart William Graham includes the questions of broadening the bilateral political dialogue and trade-economic relations, as well as key international and regional problems.

As spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Alexander Yakovenko stated, the visit of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada William Graham to Moscow "will continue the intensive political dialogue testifying to the fact that Russian-Canadian relations are confidently reaching the level of mature partnership".

As the diplomat said, "the programme of the visit envisages holding full-format talks in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and conversations with the leadership of the State Duma and of the Federation Council." "The matter will concern primarily broadening of bilateral interaction in the interests of strengthening international security and reducing regional tension," Yakovenko noted.

"The Canadian leadership emphatically condemned the recent hostage-taking in Moscow and offered necessary assistance and support to the Russian side," the Russian diplomat recalled. As he stressed, at the present time "work is under way to develop quite a number of bilateral mechanisms for coordinating efforts in countering the new global threats and challenges, first of all on the part of international terrorism and organised crime." "The bilateral format of the work to turn into practice the initiative of Global Partnership in preventing proliferation of weapons and materials of mass destruction, adopted at the G8 summit in Kananaskis in June 2002, has been becoming an important new direction of cooperation," he emphasized.

The visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada to Russia will last till November 26.