Lavrov to attend CBSS ministerial session in Oslo Tue

MOSCOW, June 7 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Sergei Lavrov travels to Oslo onTuesday to attend the 16th ministerial
session of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS).
The leaders of delegations of eleven countries (Germany, Denmark,
Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Finland, Sweden, and
Estonia) and the European Commission will discuss ways to invigorate
cooperation in the region. The interaction processes are to be considered
from the point of view of the principles and tasks recorded in the Riga
Declaration on the Reform of CBSS" and the Vilnius 2010 Declaration for
the Baltic Sea Region by 2020.
A Russian Foreign Ministry official said the Ministers are planning to
adopt yet another declaration that will reaffirm the policy course towards
reforming the CBSS. RF Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich
said the document is designed "to emphasize the importance of orientation
towards specific projects, including those with an active use of the
state-and-private partnership mechanisms".
On the sidelines of the session, Lavrov is to have a bilateral meeting
with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store. The Ministers are to
exchange the ratification instruments of the Treaty on Maritime
Delimitation and Cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
Lavrov is also expected to meet with his Latvian counterpart Girts Valdis
Kristovskis.
The CBSS is the central organization for multilateral interaction in
the region, and its activities are focusing largely on the rendering of
assistance to comprehensive development of territories in Northern Europe,
including the north-western regions of Russia: St Petersburg, Leningrad,
Kaliningrad, Novgord, and Pskov Regions.
CBSS presidency, in accordance with the rotation principle, will pass
on for one year from Norway to Germany in July 2011 and then to Russia in
July 2012.