Task of G-8 meeting is to restore trust to each other after Iraqi crisis

The task of the forthcoming meeting of G-8 foreign ministers due in Paris on May 22-23 is to restore the trust between the countries after the Iraqi crisis, said the Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Alexander Yakovenko.

The meeting will be held "at the times of difficult international situation," he pointed out. "On the one hand, relations between the partners are complicated after the Iraqi war. On the other hand, the scale and acuteness of a number of political and global issues require that the members of this influential 'club' consolidate their efforts for energetic joint action," the diplomat explained.

In this context, the top priority is to use the maximum potential of G-8 as of an informal club to bring the parties' approaches closer, to restore and strengthen trust between the leaders, to search ways of strengthening collective mechanisms of managing the international situation, Yakovenko pointed out.

The Russian party will play at the meeting, as well as at the following G-8 summit, the role of a constructive partner, aiming at finding consensus," he said.

"G-8 members have much more common interests than disagreements, and this allows them to discuss disputable issues sincerely," the spokesman concluded.