Putin goes to Paris to have talks with Sarkozy, Fillon, open Russian exhibition.

MOSCOW, June 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
will make a working visit to France on June 10-11 to meet French President
Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
In an interview with Agence France Press and France 2 TV on Wednesday,
Putin said his relationship with Sarkozy was "very good, brotherly and,
I'd say, even friendly."
"Contacts between the heads of state depend not only and probably so
much on personal sympathies or antipathies as by the interests of
business. Russia and France are traditional and long-standing partners in
historical terms. We have mutual interests and the positions of Russia and
France coincide. We pursue these interests reciprocally in order to ensure
the security of our countries and facilitate economic and social
development," he said.
The prime minister is convinced that it is these interests that
"underlie the relationship with the French leadership: Jacques Chirac,
Sarkozy, and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon".
Speaking of bilateral relations, Putin noted particularly trade
turnover that "increased by around 30 percent" in the first quarter of the
year alone.
"This is a very good sign. I hope that our development will be more
powerful and positive," he said.
The main purpose of his trip to France is to open a Russian National
Exhibition. It will be held at the Grand Palais on June 11-15 as part of
the Year of Russia in France and the Year of France in Russia and will be
one of the key events of the programme.
"An important objective of the exhibition is to show achievements in
Russian-French cooperation, facilitate the strengthening of strategic
partnership, the development of trade, economic, investment,
inter-regional, social and humanitarian interaction between Russia and
France, as well as integration of efforts in the field of innovations, "
the government press service said.

.New UN resolution on Iran rules out suffocating or paralysing
measures - FM.

MOSCOW, June 10 (Itar-Tass) - The text of the newly adopted U.N.
Security Council resolution on Iran does not contain any wording that may
lead up to the use of "suffocating" or "paralysing" measures, a Russian
Foreign Ministry official said, commenting on Wednesday's resolution that
envisions new sanctions against Iran.
"All the measures specified in the resolution were adopted along the
lines of Article 41 of Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which rules out
the use of force," he said.
"A reference to this article in the preamble to the resolution is
supported by an unambiguous statement that nothing in the text gives
grounds for measures or actions going beyond its format, inclusive of the
use of force of threat of force," the official said.
"When work on the resolution was underway in the format of the Sextet
and the U.N. Security Council, all the wording that might have entailed
the use of suffocating or paralysing measures against Iran were avoided,"
he said.
"As a result, the sanctions specified in the resolution are focused on
the resolution of non-proliferation tasks in the context of the Iranian
nuclear programme," the official said.
"Respectively, the main purpose of the decision made by the U.N.
Security Council is to motivate the Iranian side towards cooperation and
to press it into conforming with the demands formulated by the
International Atomic Energy Agency, among others," he said.
"Our efforts aim to give an impetus to the political and diplomatic
settlement of the situation, which would resolve the international
community's concerns over the Iranian nuclear programme and would assure
its exclusively peaceful nature along with strict observance of Iran's
legitimate rights to a peaceful use of atomic energy," the official said.
A joint statement of foreign ministers of the six negotiating
countries (five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus
Germany) that was published on the same day as the Council endorsed the
resolution confirmed openness and readiness for fruitful communications
with Iran places the emphasis exactly on dialogue and talks, he said.

.Medvedev to have series of bilateral meetings at SCO summit.

MOSCOW, June 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will
have a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit that is opening in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, on Thursday, June 10.
Medvedev will confer with Chinese President Hu Jintao to discuss
"political contacts, interaction on key international issues, and trade
and economic cooperation," presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said.
"Medvedev and Hu will also exchange views ahead of the G20 and G8
summits," he added.
They will also discuss humanitarian cooperation, the financial and
economic situation in the world, and "the international agenda, including
further SCO activities, the situation in Central Asia, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, and on the Korean Peninsula," the aide said.
He said Medvedev might hold some other bilateral meetings during the
summit as well.
-0-zak/


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