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The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov is to meet the U.S. President Barack Obama next week in Washington, D.C. He will also take part in a meeting of the Middle East Quartet on Israel-Palestine on July 11.
The Russian Minister is to hold talks with the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during his visit to the U.S. on July 11-13. The sides will discuss the schedule for the bilateral top-level contacts for 2011, particularly the upcoming Barack Obama's visit to the Russian capital this autumn.
Sergey Lavrov will visit the United States on July 11-13. He is scheduled to meet with Barack Obama and to hold talks with Hillary Clinton, the ministry said in their Twitter feed.
On the eve of his visit Mr. Lavrov spoke out on the major topics of his US meeting. On the agenga are a now traditional search of compromise on Europe’s missile-defense system issue, an adoption agreement, and an agreement on facilitating the visa regime between two countries.
Russian – American reset at president Obama administration has given very important positive results, said Mr. Lavrov on Thursday in his interview to Russia-24 channel. According to him, Russia has got a more reliable, more predictable, and more consistent partner in the face of the U.S. However, Mr. Lavrov believes that complex topics and confrontation still remain in the Russian-American relations, as an echo of the Cold War.
Europeean missile-defense system
Talking about Europe’s missile-defense system, Mr. Lavrov emphasized that the suggestions made by Russia on this issue are "worth being considered and are suited to look for compromises which won't limit neither US, nor European, nor Russian interests".
Now there are two strategic missile-defense system areas in the USA, in Alaska, and in California. There is only one strategic missile defense system in Russia, near Moscow.
Russia and NATO have agreed upon cooperation in creation of Europe’s missile-defense system at the Lisbon Summit in November 2010. Russia claims that development of the concept and framework of the system should be based on equal rights and should provide for adequate measures of consolidation of trust and transparency in the sphere of missile-defense system.
It is absolutely vital for the Russian side to get NATO's guarantees that Europe's missile-defense system will not be pointed at Russia. This should be fixed on paper, and the sides should be bound by law, rather than by word. NATO, in its turn, attempts to cajole the Russian side into believing that the system would not be applied against Russia.
An adoption agreement
A very important and long-awaited adoption agreement may be signed in Washington during this visit. This agreement was caused by several cases when American step-parents beat their Russian step-children and the American step-mother returned her seven–year-old step-son, Artem Saveliev, back to Russia by plane with a rejected note.
Mr. Lavrov said that the agreement would be bilateral and contain such points as obligatory psychological testing of potential adopters. Furthermore, one would be able to adopt a child only through accredited agencies. Thirdly, Russian children adopted by Americans will keep Russian citizenship till their legal adulthood.
Visa issue
Russian Minister is to discuss the visa issue in Washington. According to Mr. Lavrov, the preparation of Russia-U.S. agreement on liberalizing visa regime is in its final stage. It will provide an opportunity of getting multi-year, multiple-entry tourist and business visas, and one-year, multiple-entry visas for people who visit U.S. and Russia with official purposes.
At the end of May John Beyrle, the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow, said that the countries were to sign an agreement on multiple-entry three-year visa by the beginning of autumn.
Mr. Lavrov underlined that the countries are coordinating agreement clauses on facilitating visa regime that concern the terms of consideration, and the list of documents required for visa application.
www.ria.ru, www.rbc.ru, www.bloomberg.com
Irina Fomina
Author: Irina Fomina
