Russia, Bosnia To Revive Contacts: Foreign-ministers

Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina intend to sign a bilateral package to revive economic partnership and trade, and establish an intergovernmental cooperation commission, said Igor Ivanov, Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Zlatko Lagumdzija, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia-Herzegovina, as they met at the negotiation table in Moscow Tuesday. The two countries are determined quite soon to finish drafting an agreement for analyses of such of bilateral treaties signed by the no longer existent Soviet Union and Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1945 into 1991 which concern Bosnia-Herzegovina. That, and the upcoming agreements will provide a sound basis to tackle practical issues of all-round contacts, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs press and information department says in a press release on the negotiations. The conferees highlighted an urgent necessity to form an updated legal basis for bilateral partnership, and called both countries' business circles to revive their severed contacts--in particular, through Russian corporate participation in updating and privatisation of industrial companies based in Bosnia-Herzegovina, starting with those built with Soviet technical assistance before the Yugoslav conflict years. The negotiators exchanged opinions on the crucial aspects of implementing the Bosnia peace agreement. Russia dynamically supports international efforts to buttress official arrangements in Bosnia-Herzegovina and provide normal life to all its ethnic entities. Moscow is willing to work on for Bosnia-Herzegovina to develop into an united multiethnic state consisting of two equal entities--the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Republic Srpska, reassured Igor Ivanov. Lawful ruling bodies are to bear full responsibility for developments in Bosnia-Herzegovina--a point which Russia consistently promotes. Whatever changes in the Dayton arrangements of Bosnia-Herzegovina can be possible only when all Bosnian parties agree to them, and the constitutional procedure is complied with, Russia's Foreign Ministry stresses in its statement.