Today's Date:

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UKRAINE/RUSSIA

THE MINISTER – (...) If I may, I should like to say (...) that I think it's good that President Yushchenko's first visit abroad should be here in Moscow, given the two countries' ties, as you know, stemming from history, culture, geography and the economy. We have ourselves followed the progress of this Ukrainian democratic movement, which is an important one. President Chirac will very probably have the opportunity to greet President Yushchenko who is scheduled to be in Auschwitz for the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camps. And, as regards the European Union, we are preparing to draw up a neighbourhood and partnership agreement with Ukraine in the framework of the new European Union neighbourhood policy.

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CHECHNYA

THE MINISTER – Everyone does what they want depending on the time, and uses words for which they take responsibility. Going beyond the words, there are realities, there is this crisis and tragedies in that region of Chechnya, in fact Sergei Lavrov and I talked very frankly about it and I reiterated our position on this grave crisis. We want to fight terrorism everywhere because there's no explanation, justification for it, anywhere. We very clearly recognize that Russia's territorial integrity must not be called into question and, in this crisis, there as elsewhere, we are keen to encourage the political process so that the violence against civilians can stop, so that politics, debate and dialogue prevail, and a solution is found through the dialogue. I also had the opportunity to reiterate the importance of the non-governmental organizations and Sergei Lavrov talked particularly about the possibility opened up for the Red Cross. So you see we discussed this situation very frankly, in the framework of our very frank dialogue. (...)./.