Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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No Hope for Progress at G8 Summit
The G8 foreign ministers met in German Potsdam Wednesday to prepare the ground for upcoming summit of G8 leaders. But judging by the yesterday’s rhetoric of ministers, the Group of Eight summit will hardly bear fruit – positions of Russia and the West on core issues, ranging from Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan to regional conflicts have remained quite the opposite.
It was Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that came up with one of the most ardent statements yesterday. Same as destiny of all Serbia, Kosovo’s destiny should be solved not in New York, Potsdam or similar places. It should be sorted out in direct talks of Belgrade and Pristina, Lavrov made clear signaling the disagreements over Kosovo will survive the Heiligendamm summit of leaders.
The missile shield plans of the United States are another problem that may sour the next week’s event.
After the meeting, the trio of Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left for Berlin to proceed with talks in the framework of the Middle East Quartet. Russia traditionally lobbies an idea of large-scale conference on Middle East settlement, but similar to the past year, the situation in Lebanon and Palestine is very tense and the quartet will hardly arrive at some definite solutions.
And last but not least, the upcoming negotiations of U.S. President George Bush and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin are another concern of Rice and Lavrov today. The presidents will meet twice during a month, first time at the G8 event in Heiligendamm and then in the United States, when Putin is visiting former U.S. President George Bush Senior.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 31, 2007
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