Russia's Foreign Minister Intends to Visit London

Russia's Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov is going to London for a working visit early next week, Russia's ambassador to Great Britain Grigori Karasin has announced.

Igor Ivanov's visit will become a crucial stage of a political dialogue and practical co-operation between the two countries in resolving international problems, he said.

Russia's visit to the British capital will be short but busy, the ambassador said. The discussion of the Iraqi issue is expected to take a significant part of negotiations. Moreover, wide aspects of combating terrorism, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the Afghani situation, ways of the Middle East settlement and a number of other issues will also be on the agenda.

Karasin said it was possible that the European block of problems, such as Russia's relations with Europe, the UN and the NATO, would also be covered.

Besides negotiations with Britain's Foreign Minister Jack Straw, Igor Ivanov also intends to meet the government of the House of Commons parliamentary committees, dealing with foreign policy, security and defence issues as well as the inter-party British-Russian parliamentary group, the ambassador stated.

When touching upon the current state of Russia-Great Britain relations, Karasin said that they had reached such a level that even discussion of the most complicated issues, where the two countries' standpoints differed greatly, did not mean that "relations must necessarily worsen".

"We must get used to the fact that our standpoint on some issues may differ. Moreover, they can even be opposite. But it can only mean that in the new changed world we must calmly discuss all arguments and facts, intend to make our standpoints closer and be able to find a common denominator," Grigori Karasin stated.